The media's reputation for bias was confirmed in a poll released Thursday by Rasmussen Reports, which found 61 percent of "likely U.S. voters do not trust the political news they are getting. That's a 16-point jump from 45% last October." A mere 21 percent of likely voters "still have confidence in the political coverage they get," which is down 12 percentage points from that October 2014 poll. Voters were simply asked: "Do you trust the political news you are getting?"
Rasmussen also asked the 965 likely voters, "When it comes to the [2016] presidential campaign, will most reporters try to help or hurt Hillary Clinton, or will they try to offer unbiased coverage?" Not even a quarter of the group (23 percent) replied that "most reporters will try to offer unbiased coverage."
Fifty-nine percent of the voters thought that news coverage of the presidential race "will be slanted instead, with 36% who say most reporters will try to help Hillary Clinton during the campaign." Twenty-three percent also indicated that reporters "will try to hurt her [Clinton's] bid for the White House."
The poll results came two days after Rasmussen released poll results found that 46 percent of likely voters want ABC's George Stephanopoulos banned from covering the 2016 presidential race, given his $75,000 in donations to the Clinton Foundation.
Back in 2012, the polling company found that "74% of voters said most reporters when covering a political campaign try to help the candidate they want to win, consistent with surveying for several years prior to that. Fifty-one percent...expected most reporters would try to help President Obama at that time, while only nine percent...thought they would be biased in favor of his GOP opponent Mitt Romney."
