A new POLITICO/Morning Consult poll shows that registered voters hold the media far more responsible than President Trump for divisiveness in America – ironically, directly refuting the media’s narrative about division.
While both Trump and the media have a majority pointing fingers at them, a significantly higher number of voters see the media as the source fracturing the American people.
Poll respondents, 56 percent of them, believe the President has done more to divide the country than unite it (30 percent). By a much higher margin, 64 percent of the American people find the mainstream media has been dividing the country, while a mere 17 percent say they’ve united the people.
The results lend credence to one of the President’s biggest criticisms of the mainstream media under his tenure in the White House.
“There is great anger in our country caused in part by inaccurate, and even fraudulent, reporting of the news,” he said. “The Fake News Media, the true Enemy of the People, must stop the open and obvious hostility and report the news accurately and fairly.”
And these are the facts. It’s not so much that Trump has been perfect in his efforts to unite the country, but the media has worked overtime to divide; and it’s clear to voters of any political persuasion. https://t.co/g9e4hzWmy2
— Mark (@crowdedmar) November 1, 2018
Across the political spectrum, media viewed negatively
The poll numbers demonstrate how badly the institution of journalism is perceived by the American people, and they’re overwhelming.
Respondents claiming the President has failed to unite fall predominantly with Democrats and Independents.
By contrast, every political spectrum across the board view the national news media with disdain. Democrats (46-28 percent), Independents (67-14 percent), and Republicans (80-9 percent) all say the media divides, rather than unites the country.
CNN and others in the Fake News Business keep purposely and inaccurately reporting that I said the “Media is the Enemy of the People.” Wrong! I said that the “Fake News (Media) is the Enemy of the People,” a very big difference. When you give out false information – not good!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 30, 2018
The results seem to suggest that voters, at least in part, believe the media has indeed been working as the “enemy of the people.”
How the media attacks conservatives and divides Americans
It isn’t all that difficult to find examples of the media dividing our country.
There are the old stand-by stereotypes – they paint half the country as racist, xenophobic, homophobic, Islamaphobic, women-hating, child-hating, puppy-hating, Deplorables.
Remember when media personalities claimed Trump and his supporters were just a bunch of toothless hillbillies?
In the last few months alone, they have published an assassination fantasy about President Trump, blamed him for bad weather, and coordinated hundreds of anti-Trump letters designed to convince readers that he’s the enemy, not them.
They hate the President. And they hate his supporters as well.
Considering a good portion of the media’s coverage of Trump has been negative, and most outlets have adopted the ‘Trump divides us’ narrative in their daily coverage, it’d be reasonable to assume the President’s numbers would be even more positive if the media were simply honest.
Instead, they are hell-bent on dragging the President down in the gutter where they’ve cornered the market on division.
