Politics

Americans think the media is biased against Trump: poll

Donald Trump has raged against the media throughout his campaign, calling the press biased — and a poll released Wednesday says a majority of Americans agree.

Even voters who don’t support the GOP presidential nominee said the press has it in for him.

Like many recent surveys, the Quinnipiac University poll found that Hillary Clinton is leading the race for the White House with 47 percent of the vote, compared to Trump’s 40 percent when third-party candidates are included.

But 55 percent of voters told pollsters Trump was right when he charged the media is biased against, compared to 42 percent who said it wasn’t.

Republicans and independents were overwhelmingly with Trump on that issue — and so were 20 percent of Democrats.

“Donald Trump made the charge, and American likely voters agree: There is a media bias against the GOP contender,” said pollster Tim Malloy.

Trump has made attacks on the media a cornerstone of his outsider campaign, eliciting cheers and anger at his rallies when he excoriates media outlets and even individual reporters.

“Let’s be clear on one thing, the corporate media in our country is no longer involved in journalism – they are a political special interest no different from a lobbyist,” he railed in a recent speech in Florida.

“Their agenda is to elect crooked Hillary Clinton at any cost, at any price, no matter how many lives they destroy.”

Voters also believed by 51 to 31 percent margin that Trump assaulted several women — but again there were wide gaps between the parties.

Democrats believed it 84 to 5 percent and independents 45 to 34 percent. Republicans weren’t buying the accusations by 56 to 22 percent.

Likely voters also believe that Trump lacks a sense of decency by 59 to 36 percent, and that he is not fit to be president, by 58 to 38 percent.

Clinton does have a sense of decency, voters say by 55 to 42 percent, but they are divided on whether she is fit to be president, with 47 percent saying yes and 49 percent saying no.

“Media bias or not, Trump’s character issues have ominous implications,” Malloy said. “The consensus opinion is that Trump groped women and is neither fit enough nor a decent enough person to be president.”