While most Americans are aware of Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney’s secret video comments criticizing the “47 percent” of voters who “who will vote for the president no matter what,” nearly half believe the media have given them too much coverage.
A new poll out this week from the Pew Research Center found that 67 percent of voters were aware of the “47 percent” video. Of those aware of the video, 49 percent believe the media have given it too much coverage, 13 percent believe it received too little, 28 percent said it received the right amount and 10 percent did not know.
To be sure, the 47 percent comments, made at a private fundraiser in May and recently brought to light by the liberal publication Mother Jones, were not well received by those who were aware of them. Just 23 percent reacted positively to the comments while 55 percent had a negative reaction. Nineteen percent had no reaction and 3 percent did not know.
Predictably, self-identified Republicans who were aware of the video generally had a better view of the Romney comments, with 54 percent of them viewing it positively compared to 17 percent negative and 29 percent neutral.
Democrats were not so forgiving, with 88 percent seeing the comments negatively, and just 5 percent viewing them in a positive light. Seven percent were neutral.
Among independents, 55 percent saw the comments negatively, 18 percent viewed them as a positive and 27 percent were neutral.
The Pew poll was conducted Sept. 27-30 and sampled 1,005 adults, including 828 registered voters over the telephone.