Only 34% of Americans believe the United States has the world’s best economy, but 50% believe the media makes economic conditions appear worse than they really are, according to a new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey.

With the Federal Reserve Board chairman making gloomy predictions this week about the country’s short-term economic future, gas now over $4 a gallon and numerous other negative indicators, 52% of adults believe the U.S. economy is not the best in the world.

Only a quarter (25%) think reporters and media outlets present an accurate picture of the economy and 18% believe they actually portray it as better than it is. Just 34% trust reporters more when it comes to news on the economy, and 32% see stockbrokers as more reliable.

A plurality of Americans (41%) similarly believe that the media has tried to make the war in Iraq appear worse that it really is, while 26% say reporters have made it look better than reality and 25% think they’ve portrayed it accurately.

A related survey found that voters see Obama getting better treatment than McCain from reporters in Election 2008.

Forty-four percent (44%) also think reporters and media outlets see U.S. society as basically unfair and discriminatory, while nearly as many (39%) say they view America as generally fair and decent. In contrast to their perception of reporters, polls consistently show that over 60% of Americans view our society as fair and decent while roughly one-third as many say it is unfair and discriminatory.

Republicans, and conservatives in particular, have been highly critical of news coverage by the so-called mainstream media in recent years, and numerous surveys have shown that journalists are far more liberal than the average American voter. More specifically, many on the GOP side felt media coverage in the 1992 election cycle hurt George H.W. Bush’s re-election chances by portraying the economy as far worse than it actually was.

This partisan divide is reflected in the new survey results, with 74% of Republicans but only 29% of Democrats saying the media tries to make the economy seem worse than it is. The numbers are very similar for those who characterize themselves as likely voters for John McCain (70%) and Barack Obama (29%).

Over half of unaffiliated voters (55%) share this negative assessment of the media’s economic reporting.

Republicans are also far more likely to trust a stockbroker than a reporter for their economic news.

Similarly, Democrats have a gloomier assessment of the U.S. economy than Republicans. Fifty-nine percent of GOP voters believe America’s economy is the world’s best versus 18% of Democrats. Only 30% of unaffiliated voters agree, which may spell potential problems for McCain and the Republicans in general since polling shows that economic issues are the top concern for voters this election year.

Thirty-nine percent (39%) of Democrats think the media has portrayed the war in Iraq better than it really is, a view shared by only nine percent (9%) of Republicans.

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