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.”
MSNBC’s Joe Scarborough issued an angry rant against the media Thursday morning, arguing that reporters are taking one “little phrase” from Donald Trump and having a “freak out” over something that Democrats have been complaining about ever since President George W. Bush beat Al Gore in 2000.
On MSNBC’s “Morning Joe,” Mr. Scarborough pointed out a double standard in the media after reporters pounced on the Republican presidential nominee’s statement during the final debate that he may or may not respect the election results.
Mr. Scarborough said it’s just another example “of the media having to find a little phrase and freak out.”
“When as a Republican I have listened to Democrats talk about the only two times we won the White House in like 800 years that we stole both elections,” the host said. “I had to sit through ‘Fahrenheit 911’ and a lady was sobbing violently behind me on the Upper West Side about the election being stolen from George Bush and I patted her halfway through. I go, ‘It’s all right, it’s all right, ma’am. It’s all right. It’s all a lie anyway.’ Democrats have been whining for 16 years, they are still writing articles about how Bush stole the elections in 2000 and 2004. So this holier-than-thou attitude about, ‘This is the first time anyone has suggested that the election is not a sacrosanct process,’ it’s a joke. So you guys bathe in that hypocrisy if you want to — I’d just like to hear how the debate went. Go ahead, bathe.
