Most Don’t Trust Political News But Following More Closely

Voters still don’t trust the political news they get and think it remains biased against President Trump. But they’re also following the news more closely these days.

A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone and online survey finds that just 30% of Likely U.S. Voters trust the political news they are getting. Most (53%) do not. That compares to 32% and a high of 54% a year ago. Seventeen percent (17%) remain undecided. (To see survey question wording, click here.)

Only 36% didn't trust political news in January of 2017, but that number was in the 40s from 2014 through 2016.

Just 10% of voters think most reporters are trying to help Trump pass his agenda when they write or talk about the president. Forty-four percent (44%) believe instead that most are trying to block Trump’s agenda, although that’s down from a high of 51% in August of last year. Thirty-eight percent (38%) say most reporters are simply interested in reporting the news in an unbiased manner.

By comparison, 48% thought most reporters were trying to help President Obama pass his agenda in 2010 when Rasmussen Reports first asked this question.

Still, 44% of voters say they are following the news more closely than they were a year ago, up from 38% this time last year. Sixteen percent (16%) are following less closely, while 38% say their attention to the news is about the same.

(Want a free daily e-mail update? If it's in the news, it's in our polls). Rasmussen Reports updates are also available on Twitter or Facebook.

The survey of 1,000 Likely Voters was conducted June 15-16, 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.

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.

Sixty-two percent (62%) of Republicans and 60% of voters not affiliated with either major political party do not trust the political news they are getting. Democrats by a 44% to 38% margin do trust that news. Nearly half of both Republicans and Democrats are following the news more closely, compared to just 34% of unaffiliated voters.

Sixty-seven percent (67%) of GOP voters and a slight plurality (43%) of unaffiliateds feel that most reporters are out to block Trump’s agenda. Most Democrats (56%) believe they’re just trying to report the news in an unbiased manner.

The older the voter, the more likely they are to be following the news more closely these days.

Only five percent (5%) of those who trust their political news are following less closely. Among those who don’t trust the political news they get, 25% are tuning in less.

More voters than ever are regular Internet users, with over one-third of those under 40 now saying their political opinions are influenced by social media.

In a survey last October, voters directed more anger at the media than they did at Trump or his political opponents.

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

Please sign up for the Rasmussen Reports daily e-mail update (it's free) or follow us on Facebook. Let us keep you up to date with the latest public opinion news.