The results are in: Americans don’t trust the media to report the news fully, accurately and fairly, to fact-check candidates, or to treat all candidates impartially.
A new Rasmussen poll shows that, despite Hillary Clinton campaign’s insistence that the media fact-check her opponent, Donald Trump, Americans don’t trust the media to do that job. In fact, a review of recent polls shows Americans don’t trust media to do much of anything:
- Only 29% Trust Media Fact-Checking,
- Nearly two-thirds (62%) say media skew facts to help their favorite candidate,
- Nearly three times as many say media are biased against Trump (48%) as say they’re biased against Clinton (18%),
- Trust in media “to report news fully, accurately and fairly” has sunk to a new low of 32%
- Confidence in newspapers reached an all-time-low this year at 20%, and
- Just 6% have a lot of trust in the media,
Meanwhile, 90% of Americans say it’s “extremely” or “very” important that the media get their facts right.
Americans’ overwhelming distrust and indictment of the media was vindicated at Monday night’s presidential debate. As Breitbart.com’s “Five Times Lester Holt Shilled for Hillary Clinton at First Debate” explains:
“NBC News’ Lester Holt had his “Candy Crowley” moment at the first debate of the 2016 presidential election on Monday night, bowing to pressure from the Hillary Clinton campaign and the liberal media by “fact-checking” Republican nominee Donald Trump on the question of his support for the Iraq War.
“Holt lived up to the expectations of his peers. But he lived down to the worst expectations of conservatives, who routinely see Republican candidates treated unfairly by debate moderators.
“Again and again, Holt asked Trump tough questions that were straight from the Clinton campaign’s talking points, and which were obvious set-ups for Clinton to attack (and for fact-checkers to pounce on whatever Trump asserted in his own defense).”
What’s more, as Newsbusters reports, veteran debate moderator Jim Lehrer says it’s not even the debate moderator’s job to fact-check Trump.
“No, Absolutely not,” Lehrer declared on Sunday’s “Reliable Sources” on CNN:
“Remember, the debate for 90 minutes, people are going to be seeing the candidates, they’re going to see Donald Trump.” “And, Donald Trump is not going to be able to quote, ‘Get away’ with anything. It’s all going to be there for everybody to see.”
And, apparently, most “everybody” did see the candidates, as Monday’s debate viewership set an all-time record as 84 million tuned in to watch Trump and Clinton to decide for themselves what, and who, to believe.