AÂ Knight Foundation/Gallup poll released on Tuesday showed that 86% of Americans believe that there is a âgreat dealâ or a âfair amountâ of political bias in the way the media covers news.
According to the Federalist, this is an increase of almost 25 percentage points from 2007, when that number was 62%.
The poll showed that Republicans are more likely to say there is a âgreat dealâ of bias, while Democrats are more likely to fall in the âfair amountâ camp. However, large majorities of both parties, 78% of Democrats and 94% of Republicans, believe that there is at least some bias in the media.
The Federalist notes further how the poll showed that most Americans believe that the media bias is intentional:
When asked about their views of news organizations they distrust, 79 percent of poll respondents said those outlets were âtrying to persuade people to adopt a certain viewpoint.â When news is inaccurate, 54 percent of Americans think itâs because reporters are âmisrepresenting the facts,â while 28 percent assume theyâre âmaking them up entirely.â
The poll goes on to say that âmore than 8 in 10 Americans â 84 percent â assign the media either a great deal (48 percent) or a moderate amount (36 percent) of blame for political division.â
So can anyone blame them for tuning out?