Pew: 68% say the media are biased, just 21% trust ‘a lot’

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More than two-thirds of the nation believe the media are biased, and among Republicans, a huge 86 percent believe reporters favor one side, presumably not theirs, according to a new survey.

The Pew Research Center reported Tuesday that 68 percent of a huge poll of over 5,000 sees bias.

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“Most Americans also continue to think the news media favor one side when covering political and social issues. About two-thirds (68 percent) say this, compared with three-in-10 who say they deal fairly with all sides. And as in previous years, Republicans (86 percent) are far more likely than Democrats (52 percent) to say news organizations favor one side,” said the survey analysis.

Trust in the media is also miserably low, but not as bad as for social media. Said Pew, “While one-in-five Americans (21 percent) have a lot of trust in the information they get from national news organizations, that share is about five times as high as the portion that have a lot of trust in the information they get from social media sites (4 percent).”

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But, oddly, most have faith that the news is accurate.

Part of the public’s disconnect with the media may be that more than not feel that the press doesn’t understand them.

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“In what may be another indicator of trust levels, most Americans say they do not feel understood by or connected to news organizations. This sense of disconnectedness is stronger among Republicans than Democrats,” said Pew.

It added, “A little more than half of Americans (58 percent) do not feel like news organizations understand people like them, while four-in-ten say that they do feel understood. A similar portion of Americans (56 percent) do not feel particularly connected to their main sources of national news, whereas about four-in-ten (42 percent) say they do feel connected.”

[Also read: Media turn Kavanaugh nomination into a battle of the sexes]

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