Nearly 60 Percent of Americans Think Mainstream Media Coverage Biased - Poll

A staggering 59 percent of Americans believe that MSM coverage of international and domestic agenda in their country is biased and incredible, according to a poll conducted by renowned French pollster Ifop (French Institute of Public Opinion).

Ifop interviewed respondents, asking them, "Do you think the mainstream media in the US cover international and domestic events fairly, or do you think coverage is unfairly influenced by the likes of politicians or big business?"

According to the poll, 27 percent believe that MSM coverage of foreign and domestic events is fair while the rest, 14 percent said they don’t know.
At the same time, the share of those mistrusting mainstream media coverage in the US has grown six percent over the past two-and-a-half year, compared to the results of an ICM Research poll in May 2015.

The Ifop survey was conducted in the wake of the ongoing allegations in the US mainstream media about Russia’s interference with the 2016 presidential election and its attempts to influence domestic politics. The results of the poll show that while MSM continue bashing Russia, providing no single piece of evidence to back up their claims, their credibility in the eyes of their domestic audience is sinking.

One of the most recent and glaring examples of this Russia bashing was a story by The Washington Post that claimed that a Google investigation had uncovered Russia’s attempts to influence the election by purchasing digital ads on YouTube, Gmail and other platforms. The newspaper cited unnamed "people familiar with the investigation" while the company refused to comment. The report has not been confirmed since it was published in early October.

READ MORE: Facebook, Twitter and Google Deserve Scrutiny, but Not the Way Congress Wants

What is also remarkable about the Ifop survey is that it revealed that 75 percent of those who voted for Donald Trump do not believe MSM, almost twice as much as among Hillary Clinton’s supporters (38 percent). These results are quite understandable. Trump and members of his team since his presidential campaign have been intensely targeted by MSM for their alleged ties to the Russian government.

In his attempts to counter this spread of misinformation, Trump has contributed a lot to popularize the concept of "fake news," a label the US president has attached to a number of MSM outlets.

​The survey was commissioned by Sputnik and conducted by Ifop on September 20-27, 2017, interviewing 802 respondents over 18 years of age in the United States.