New Poll Finds Over 70% of Americans Think Media Is Peddling Hate and Dividing the Country

By Brandon Morse | 12:30 PM on November 15, 2018

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President Donald Trump answers questions from members of the media as he leaves the White House, Sunday, Nov. 4, 2018, in Washington, en route to rallies in Macon, Ga., and Chattanooga, Tennessee. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)

Media bias is as common as clouds in the sky, but the extent to which the media’s bias pushes it to cause division to the point of hate is often ignored by the media itself.

Regardless of the media’s attempts to ignore its own contributions to the extreme division in this country, Americans appear to be noticing it and by a large number at that. According to a poll by Zogby, a whopping 72 percent of those polled believe the media is driving hate-fueled division within the country.

“Do you agree or disagree: The mainstream media has played a major role in dividing Americans along racial, gender and political lines. This has led to a spread of hate and misunderstanding among some people,” asked the Zogby poll.

According to the results, 47 percent strongly agree with the statement, while 25 percent somewhat agree.

Only 16 percent strongly disagreed with the statement, leaving the remaining 13 percent to somewhat agree.

While this feeling is split down party lines, even a slim majority of Democrats believe the mainstream media is complicit in dividing the country at 51 percent. Republicans unsurprisingly believe the media is splitting the country at 94 percent.

Trump didn’t get off lightly, however, as Zogby also asked respondents if they thought Trump had a hand in dividing the country. According to Zogby, two-thirds of respondents said he’s just as guilty.

Outside of party lines, demographic breakdowns showed there was still strong agreement, such as between women and men, as well as race and age groups according to Zogby:

Men (70% agree) and women (73% agree) were very much in agreement (strongly and somewhat agree combined) about the role the mainstream media plays in dividing the public and spreading hate.

While both genders were in agreement, generational age groups had an inverse relationship. Interestingly, younger voters age 18-24 and age 18-29 (81-82% strongly and somewhat agree/18-19% strongly and somewhat disagree) were much more likely to blame the media for spreading hate and misunderstanding than older voters age 65+ (62% strongly and somewhat agree/38% strongly and somewhat disagree) and age 70+ (67% strongly and somewhat agree/33% strongly and somewhat disagree).

(h/t: DailyWire)