On Sunday’s Meet the Press, host Chuck Todd highlighted a stunning finding from the latest NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll that 99 percent of CNN viewers believe President Trump has been lying about the Russia investigation. In other words, the cable channel’s biased coverage has been so complete that nearly all of its audience has decided that Trump has lied when denying Russian collusion.
“‘Has the President been truthful or honest on Russia?’ Among Fox viewers, 84 percent of Fox viewers believe the president has been truthful. Among MSNBC viewers, that’s 21 percent. Among CNN viewers, that’s one percent,” Todd explained. Conversely, 12 percent of Fox viewers, 76 percent of MSNBC viewers, and again, 99 percent of CNN viewers thought the President had lied.
Even left-wing MSNBC viewers were more divided on the subject than CNN watchers.
Talking to the political strategists who conducted the NBC/WSJ poll, Todd asked: “But that does tell you something major. What does it say to you?” Democratic pollster Fred Yang replied: “It tells us that you get your reality from what channel you watch.”
That’s certainly the case, and anyone who has been watching CNN for the past two years since Trump took office has repeatedly watched anchors and pundits smear the President as a liar, particularly when it comes to the Russia investigation:
Cuomo: 'Why Does Putin Command Such Deference and Secrecy From and by Our President?'
CNN Commentator: Assume Trump Always Lying, 'Fact-Check Him Backwards'
CNN Analyst: Yes, There Are Americans ‘Stupid’ Enough to Believe Trump’s Excuse
‘Cannot Be Trusted’: CNN Promotes Conspiracies After Slamming Liar Trump
CNN's Cuomo on Trump Pardons: 'It Seems Like You Want to Send the Message Lying Is Okay'
Stelter Declares Day 470 of White House ‘Credibility Crisis,’ Dismisses Media’s
With CNN’s uniform anti-Trump coverage, it’s no surprise that viewers are adopting the negative narrative the media outlet puts forward. That is precisely why media bias is so damaging to having a fair political debate.
Here is a transcript of the March 3 exchange on Meet the Press:
11:12 AM ET
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CHUCK TODD: You guys had a fascinating chart. And I’m going to put you guys a bit on the spot here. It was about President Trump, “Has he been honest and truthful on the Russia investigation?” And we had it split up by where people get their news on television, on the cable front. Well, let me put it up here. So, “Has the President been truthful or honest on Russia?” Among Fox viewers, 84 percent of Fox viewers believe the president has been truthful. Among MSNBC viewers, that’s 21 percent. Among CNN viewers, that’s one percent.
Look, these are small samples, we can debate that. But that does tell you something major. What does it say to you, Fred?
FRED YANG [DEMOCRATIC POLLSTER]: It tells us that you get your reality from what channel you watch.
CHUCK TODD: And what does that mean for how this – I mean, does that mean that the Michael Cohen hearing, while as significant as it was, Bill, as far as, maybe, the legal case and everything that we’re worried about here, that the country has made up their mind, or that the partisans have made up their mind?
BILL MCINTURFF [REPUBLICAN POLLSTER]: I hate to say this, since you do a weekly show. But one of the main things you learn, as a pollster, is please, our country sort of comes to a steady state and it’s very hard to change. All the Russia news, all the Korea, all the stuff, I think we could do this same survey next week and these numbers would be within a point of each other. You just have to, in some ways, ignore everything that happens and look at longer-term trends. And the longer-term trend is the country sort of said they’ve sort of decided what they think about Russia. And until there’s a heck of a lot more fact, this country is nowhere near where it needs to be think you could impeach a president.
YANG: And to go to what Ms. [Helene] Cooper said in the previous segment, I think most partisans have decided what the truth is right now and that’s why – in terms of the Cohen and Mueller report. We’ll have to see what actually happens in the Mueller report for people to have a reaction to the Mueller report.
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