Results of a new Media Research Center (MRC) post-election poll show what actual voters thought about the media’s influence on the 2016 presidential race.
The MRC/YouGov poll, conducted on November 9 and 10, reveals that Americans are convinced that news media are dishonest - and that they tried to rig the election through unethical reporting. In fact, three times as many voters said the media were "Pro-Clinton" as said they were "Pro-Trump."
Key findings:
- 7 in 10 (69%) voters do not believe the news media are honest and truthful.
- 8 in 10 (78%) of voters believe the news coverage of the presidential campaign was biased, with nearly a 3-to-1 majority believing the media were for Clinton (59%) vs. for Trump (21%).
- Even 1/3 (32%) of Clinton voters believe the media were “pro-Clinton.”
- 8% of Trump voters said they would have voted for Clinton if they had believed what the media were saying about Trump.
- 97% of voters said they did not let the media’s bias influence their vote.
The results prompted MRC Pres. Brent Bozell to declare that the jig is up, because Americans are no longer allowing biased media to manipulate them - especially at the voting booth:
“The media are in full panic mode because the American people rejected their leftist agenda -- and them. People didn’t believe the nonsense that the media were politically neutral. Even a third of Hillary's supporters believe they were pro-Hillary!
“When you have a strong majority of actual voters saying the national ‘news’ media were biased in favor of Hillary Clinton and tried to influence the public to vote for her; and believing they are fundamentally dishonest, you have a major problem that can’t be fixed with an apology. The public has rejected this institution as being either objective or truthful. There is an institutional bias at major media networks that must be repaired and I am highly skeptical that news executives are interested or capable of undertaking this responsibility.
“Despite the overwhelming and persistent bias of this cycle in particular, I am heartened by the fact that, according to our poll, the American people didn’t let it sway their vote. If this isn’t a wakeup call for the left-wing media to stay out of politics, I don’t know what is.”
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