It’s hard to describe the relationship between President Donald Trump and the media as anything other than contentious, and it appears the majority of U.S. adults are pretty concerned over the battle that’s been raging between the White House and the press.
An overwhelming 94 percent of Americans said they are aware of the ever-strained relations between Trump and media, while 83 percent said that the current tensions have made that relationship “unhealthy,” according to a new Pew Research Center poll.
But here’s the real problem: The majority of Americans — 73 percent — also believe that the tensions between Trump and the press are “getting in the way of access to important national political news and information.”
In fact, it’s a worry that cuts across party lines, with 72 percent of Democrats, 73 percent of Republicans and 72 percent of Independents all agreeing that this is a problem.
As Faithwire previously reported, the public has been divided when it comes to the complex issues surrounding Trump and the media. For instance, a Quinnipiac University poll from February offered a unique lens into the public’s view of the spat.
One one side, the poll found that 50 percent of the voters disapprove of the way the media have covered Trump, with 45 percent rejecting this sentiment. But despite half disliking the coverage, the public isn’t necessarily on board with Trump’s rhetoric, either, as 61 percent of voters disapprove of the ways in which he has talked about the media.
Perhaps the most damning finding came when individuals were asked, “Who do you trust more to tell you the truth about important issues: President Trump or the news media?” In the end, journalists trumped the commander-in-chief, with 52 percent selecting the media and with 37 percent choosing the president.
A Fox News poll conducted earlier found the reverse — that 45 percent selected the administration, while 42 percent said the media are more trustworthy. But that poll was conducted before Trump dubbed the media the “enemy of the American people,” a move the upped the ante on the debate.
The survey results in the most recent Pew Research Center survey are based on the polling firm’s American Trends Panel, a group of randomly selected 4,151 U.S. adults who are brought in via landline and cell phone random-digit-dialing; the data was then collected through a web survey conducted from March 13-27, 2017. The margin of error was +/- 2.7 percentage points.
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