Beat the Press: Voters Say Media is Biased, Favors Obama

July 21, 2008 11:22 AM | | Comments (0)

Not a good day for us in the media in Rasmussen Reports-land. The pollster's new surveys say Americans think the press is trying to help Obama win and the economy lose.

In a poll conducted of likely voters July 19, those who thought reporters tried to help a candidate win number 71 percent compared to the 16 percent who believed the ink-stained wretches tried to offer unbiased coverage. Forty-nine percent say that, in the upcoming campaign, the press will tilt to Barack Obama compared to 24 percent who say it will try to cover the race without bias and 14 percent who think it will favor John McCain. As far as the primary season went, 57 percent said Obama got the best treatment, McCain was second at 21 percent and Clinton last at 11 percent. Forty-five percent believe that reporters would try to hide information that would damage the candidate they favored compared to 30 percent who disagree. And all in all, voters trust their family and friends for information about the campaign over the professional press by 43 percent to 29 percent.

A separate survey conducted July 16 found that half of voters believe the press has made the state of the economy seem worse than it is compared to 18 percent who say the media paint too rosy a picture and 25 percent find the reporting to be accurate. However, when it came to the question of how voters themselves saw the economy, 52 percent said "no" when asked if the U.S. still had the best economy in the world compared to 34 percent who said yes. They are about evenly split on who they trust more for information - reporters or their stockbrokers. (Republicans are more likely to trust their stockbroker than Democrats). A Plurality - 41 percent - also believe the press depicts Iraq as in a worse state than it really is compared to 26 percent who say the media makes it out to be better than it is and 25 percent who find the reporting to be objective.

In a third survey, conducted July 17-18, 68 percent of voters said they were somewhat or very confident about the stability of the nation's banking system.

Anyway, getting back to the subject of whether the press chooses favorites during campaigns, it couldn't help but remind us of Clinton's memorable moment at one debate where she referred to a Saturday Night Live skit and asked whether "we should ask if Barack is comfortable and needs another pillow," a crack that some think caused a change in the tone of reporting on Obama. So, we can't resist, here's the encore moment.

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Categories: Economy, Presidential, Rasmussen Reports

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