46% Say Average Reporter Is More Liberal Than They Are
Voters still think most reporters are politically biased and tend to view them as more liberal than they are.
A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that 67% of Likely U.S. Voters believe that most reporters, when covering a politician campaign, try to help the candidate they want to win. Only 21% think most reporters put the emphasis instead on trying to offer unbiased coverage. Twelve percent (12%) are not sure.
Forty-eight percent (48%) also believe that most reporters would hide any damaging information they learned to help the candidate they wanted to win. Twenty-nine percent (29%) disagree and 23% are not sure.
A plurality (46%) of voters continues to feel that the average reporter is more liberal than they are. Eighteen percent (18%) say the average reporter is more conservative than they are, while 22% think their views are about the same. Fourteen percent (14%) are undecided. (To see survey question wording, click here.)
Republicans and voters not affiliated with either of the major parties feel much more strongly than Democrats that most reporters try to help the candidate they want to win. Fifty-nine percent (59%) of Republicans and 58% of unaffiliated voters think most reporters would hold back news that might hurt a candidate they wanted to win, but a plurality (43%) of Democrats disagrees.
Overall, these results show little change in public attitudes compared to a year ago, Election Day 2008, or June 2008 during the last presidential election cycle.
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The survey of 1,000 Likely Voters was conducted on June 20-21, 2011 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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