Yesterday my wife and I were driving to Walgreens for our flu shots at 2PM CDT. Shepherd Smith came on Sirius radio and I immediately flipped to Fox Business. She asked “don’t you like Shep?” I responded saying” he belongs somewhere else.” Her response “isn’t Fox fair and balanced?” Mine ” 60 minutes of liberal hogwash on a network is unfair and unbalanced. It’s CNN, MSNBC or worse. He just needs to move over to one of their networks.” Came home and found he said he was leaving while I was getting my shot.
Then the mainstream news made it a major story. “Shepherd Smith quits because of Trump.” He didn’t quit because of Trump he quit because of me. I found how good Fox Business was because of Smith and so did millions of other Fox News viewers. In addition to Smith leaving due to Trump, here were the other media stories. Three Trump cases on executive orders were struck down by the courts. Every Trump executive order is struck down by the courts. Then 6 months later it is reversed and initiated. Some Obama judge out there will strike down anything Trump wants to do. Next the former ambassador to the Ukraine was testifying before the Schiff firing squad. She was a Obama appointee and normally when there is a change in administration there is a change in ambassadorship. She was bad mouthing Trump and got canned. Next, the acting head of Homeland Security resigned. What wasn’t news?
Trump Touts U.S.-China Phase One Trade Deal, Delays Tariffs. The media have made the trade negotiations with China a big story every day since they started. When there is success not a story, not one word on any major network.
All of this explains this from Rasmussen Reports.
Wednesday, October 02, 2019
Voters are mad at President Trump and his political opponents, but they’re angriest at the media these days.
A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone and online survey shows that 53% of Likely U.S. Voters are angry at the president, with 39% who are Very Angry. Forty-six percent (46%) are not angry at Trump, including 34% who are Not At All Angry. (To see survey question wording, click here.)
Forty-nine percent (49%) are angry at Trump’s political opponents, including 32% who are Very Angry. Forty-six percent (46%) aren’t angry with the president’s foes, with 24% who are Not At All Angry.
These findings are little changed from July of last year. In June 2017, 48% were angry at Trump, 51% at his political opponents.
But 61% of voters are angry at the media; 38% are not. This includes 40% who are Very Angry and just 19% who are Not At All Angry. Fifty-three percent (53%) were angry at the media in June of last year, but a high of 66% felt that way in June 2010, early in Barack Obama’s presidency.
(Want a free daily e-mail update? If it’s in the news, it’s in our polls). Rasmussen Reports updates are also available on Twitter or Facebook.
The survey of 1,000 Likely Voters was conducted on September 29-30, 2019 by Rasmussen Reports. The margin of sampling error is +/- 3 percentage points with a 95% level of confidence. Field work for all Rasmussen Reports surveys is conducted by Pulse Opinion Research, LLC. See methodology.
Voters are more likely to blame Trump for the country’s political division but don’t think electing Hillary Clinton instead would have changed much. They also don’t see the president’s defeat next year as a solution to what divides us.
Voters under 40 are more angry at Trump and less angry at his opponents than their elders are. But most voters of all ages are angry at the media.
Most Democrats are angry at Trump. Most Republicans are mad at the president’s political opponents. Voters not affiliated with either major party are more likely to be angry at both of them.
Yet while 83% of Republicans and 69% of unaffiliated voters are angry at the media, just 33% of Democrats agree.
Eighty-five percent (85%) of voters who Strongly Approve of the job Trump is doing are Very Angry at the media. Among voters who Strongly Disapprove of the president’s job performance, just six percent (6%) are Very Angry at the media; 36% are Not At All Angry.
Distrust of political news reporting remains at a record high, with just over half of voters now convinced that most in the media are out to get Trump. By contrast, 48% thought most reporters were trying to help Obama pass his agenda.
Most voters continue to believe the media is all about controversy and too quick to convict public figures.
What does all of this mean? As a retired marketing executive who massaged statistics like this to make big decisions the media is not a factor in political decision anymore. The media got Nixon to resign but then the media had a modicum of respect. No more. Second, Trump will be reelected and the Democrat Party efforts to impeach him demonstrate they can read these data too. With 85% of Trump supporters very angry at the media and 69 % of Independents very angry, the media is not moving the needle to convince voters that Trump is doing a bad job. They speak only to Democrats.
See, while Trump cuts a deal with China to stop the unfair trade practices with our country that have existed for 30 years and 5 Presidents who ignored the problem like the media ignored the solution, the Democrats were busy having a hearing with a hack ambassador who got fired and is bitter. Trying to impeach the man who is doing fine work for his country. While trying to protect a corrupt Democrat candidate, Biden, who cut a deal for his son with China that included a promise Biden would leave the trade issue alone if elected President.
