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65% of GOP Voters Say Coronavirus Reporters Chiefly Out to Get Trump

Democrats are quite happy with the ongoing media coverage of the coronavirus. But Republicans continue to put their faith in President Trump and see the media coverage as just another tool to attack him.

The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone and online survey finds that 72% of Likely Democratic Voters believe most reporters when they write or talk about Trump’s handling of the coronavirus crisis are trying to report the news in an unbiased fashion. Sixty-five percent (65%) of Likely Republican Voters disagree and think most reporters are trying to hurt the president politically instead. Voters not affiliated with either major party are almost evenly divided. (To see survey question wording, click here.)

Sixty-six percent (66%) of Democrats rate the media coverage of the coronavirus crisis as good or excellent, compared to 48% of GOP voters and 43% of unaffiliateds. Democrats are far more likely than the others to put the emphasis on excellent.

Sixty-three percent (63%) of Republicans trust Trump more than the average member of Congress and the average reporter when it comes to the current coronavirus crisis. Among Democrats, 46% trust the average reporter more, while 24% have the most confidence in the average congressional representative. Unaffiliated voters give Trump a slight edge over the average reporter, but nearly one-third of these voters are undecided.

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The survey of 1,000 Likely Voters was conducted April 12-13, 2020 by Rasmussen Reports. The margin of sampling error is +/- 3 percentage points with a 95% level of confidence. Field work for all Rasmussen Reports surveys is conducted by Pulse Opinion Research, LLC. See methodology.

With partisan politics influencing most everything in the Trump era, it’s perhaps no surprise that most Democrats are even unwilling to take a potentially life-saving drug to combat coronavirus because the president endorsed it.

Among all likely voters, 53% give positive marks to the media coverage, while 24% rate it as poor. Forty-nine percent (49%) think most reporters are trying to report the coronavirus news in an unbiased fashion. Forty-three percent (43%) say most are trying to hurt Trump politically instead.

Thirty-five percent (35%) of voters trust the president more than the average member of Congress and the average reporter when it comes to the current coronavirus crisis. Thirty percent (30%) trust the average reporter more, while just 17% put their faith in the average congressman. Eighteen percent (18%) are undecided.

Men are more likely than women to think most reporters are out to get the president politically. The older the voter, the more likely they are to approve of the media coverage and the more confidence they have that the average reporter is reporting the news in an unbiased manner.

Among voters who Strongly Disapprove of the job Trump is doing, 74% give the media coverage of the coronavirus crisis good or excellent marks. Just 26% of those who Strongly Approve of the president’s job performance agree.

Republicans have been skeptical of the coronavirus threat from the start, consistently supporting the government’s response but viewing Democrats and the media as alarmists trying to hurt the president politically.

Seventy-six percent (76%) of Republicans – and 53% of all voters – said last November that most reporters were trying to help impeach Trump when writing or talking about the Democrats’ impeachment effort.

Additional information from this survey and a full demographic breakdown are available to Platinum Members only.

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The survey of 1,000 Likely Voters was conducted April 12-13, 2020 by Rasmussen Reports. The margin of sampling error is +/- 3 percentage points with a 95% level of confidence. Field work for all Rasmussen Reports surveys is conducted by Pulse Opinion Research, LLC. See methodology.

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