If you believe that the news media's coverage of allegations involving President Donald Trump has been irresponsible and over-dramatized, you’re not alone.
According to a new poll released by NBC News and the Wall Street Journal, 50 percent of participants believe the media have favored people making allegations against the Republican occupant of the White House; 34 percent think the media have been responsible; and 12 percent say the media have been too restrained.
In an article for NBC News by reporter Mark Murray, 89 percent of Republicans polled said they believe that the media coverage of Trump allegations have sided with the president’s accusers.
Only five percent of the GOP participants said the news was responsible and proper in its coverage, while only three percent said the press was too restrained.
Of course, only 16 percent of Democrats participating in the survey stated the reporting was “Irresponsible” and over-dramatized, with a whopping 63 percent said the media was responsible and proper in their coverage.
Another 16 percent claimed that the press was “too restrained.”
Meanwhile, 48 percent of Independents stated that the coverage was irresponsible and over-dramatized, with 27 percent agreeing that the coverage was responsible and proper, while 20 percent felt the press was too restrained.
In another aspect of the survey, Murray stated:
By a 2-to-1 margin, Americans say they are more likely to believe former FBI Director James Comey than President Donald Trump when it comes to their differing accounts of events that led up to Comey's firing.
Forty-five percent of respondents say they are more likely to believe Comey's version of events from his June 8 testimony to the U.S. Senate, versus 22 percent who are more likely to believe what Trump has said.
“An additional 21 percent say they believe neither of them,” Murray noted, “and eight percent say they believe both of them.”
When asked who the respondents believe, 76 percent of Democrats replied that they would trust Comey while 50 percent of Republicans said they favor Trump.
Murray continued by indicating that the poll “also finds 46 percent of Americans disapproving of Trump’s decision to fire Comey -- up from 38 percent in May.”
“Just 27 percent approve of Comey's ouster,” the reporter asserted.
Murray also noted:
President Trump fired Comey on May 9, and the Trump administration initially said it was because of how he handled the Hillary Clinton email investigation during the 2016 election.
But Trump later suggested it was due to the FBI's investigation into Russia's interference in the election -- and whether Trump's 2016 campaign might have had contacts with Russian entities.
"When I decided to [fire Comey], I said to myself, I said you know, this Russia thing with Trump and Russia is a made-up story," Trump told NBC's Lester Holt two days after Comey's dismissal.
“Comey testified to the Senate Intelligence Committee on June 8 that the president asked Comey to let go of the investigation into former Trump National Security Adviser Michael Flynn,” Murray stated. “Trump and his personal attorney have denied he ever said that.”
“According to the NBC/WSJ poll, 53 percent of Americans believe that Russia's government interfered in the 2016 election, compared with 36 percent who disagree,” Murray added.
“But this breaks along partisan lines,” he continued, since “78 percent of Democrats and 53 percent of independents think Russia interfered, versus just 26 percent of Republicans” and 65 percent of the GOP participants asserted that there was no Russian interference.
The NBC/Wall Street Journal poll was conducted June 17-20 of 900 adults, including more than 400 by cell phone -- and it has an overall margin of error of plus-minus 3.3 percentage points.
However, if this poll is as inaccurate as the ones claiming Republican Karen Handel was in a dead heat with Democrat Jon Ossoff in the runoff for the House of Representatives seat in Georgia’s 6th District last Tuesday, anything can happen.
On the morning of June 20, pollsters claimed that race was too close to call. Twelve hours later, Handel trounced Ossoff by more than 1,300 votes.
If weathermen were wrong as often as some pollsters, they’d be looking for another job – probably in the rain.
