Almost half of all voters believe the news media fabricates stories about President Donald Trump, according to a poll by Politico and Morning Consult Wednesday.
Forty-six percent of all voters surveyed said they believe “major news organizations fabricate news stories about President Trump and his administration,” while only 37 percent answered that the do not believe the news makes up stories about Trump. The remaining 17 percent had no opinion.
Among Republicans, 76 percent thought the media made up stories about Trump, and 20 percent of Democrats said the same. Fully, 85 percent of those who approve of Trump’s performance as president believe the media fabricates stories about him.
“Actually, dishonesty in the media is one of the things that surprised me the most,” Trump told SiriusXM radio host Chris Plante Tuesday. “I thought after I won, the media would become much more stable and much more honest. They’ve gone crazy. CNN is a joke. NBC is a total joke. You watch what they report, it bears no relationship to what I’m doing. But the media is absolutely dishonest — and frankly, I’ve never seen anything quite like it.”
Trump’s ongoing war with the media plays out on nearly a daily basis, with the president criticizing outlets for reporting stories he sees as inaccurate. Trump threatened to consider revoking NBC’s broadcast license after the news outlet ran a story about the president wanting a “tenfold” increase in the nation’s nuclear weapons stockpile.
The White House and the Department of Defense vehemently denied the report, and Trump tweeted that the story was “Pure fiction, made up to demean” before asking “at what point is it appropriate to challenge their License?” Federal Communications Chairman Ajit Pai said Tuesday that the government has no authority to strip a broadcast license based solely on content.
When Morning Consult asked voters whether it is appropriate for the government revoke licenses, 28 percent answered yes, and 51 percent said that the government should not have the power to strip an outlet of its broadcast license for disseminating fake news stories.
The poll surveyed 1,991 registered voters between October 12-16, with a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 2 percent.
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