Most American voters don't trust the political news coverage they consume and believe reporters will slant their coverage of the 2016 presidential campaign toward the candidate they favor, according to a new Rasmussen Reports survey.
Sixty-one percent of likely U.S. voters said they do not trust the political news they get, a massive 16-point increase from the 45 percent who said the same last October. Only 21 percent said they still have confidence that the coverage they get is balanced, down from 33 percent in the previous survey, and 17 percent were unsure.
As for the 2016 presidential race, only 23 percent of respondents said they believe most reporters will try to provide unbiased coverage. Fifty-nine percent said they think the coverage will be slanted.
Thirty-six percent said they believe most reporters will try to help former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton take the presidency, while 23 percent said they think reporters will try to negatively affect her bid.
Last week, ABC News anchor George Stephanopoulos, a former high-level Bill Clinton aide, acknowledged that he failed to disclose to viewers or his employer $75,000 in donations he made to the Clinton family's charitable organization. Stephanopoulos' journalistic integrity was called into question as he continued to report on news directly related to the Clinton Foundation, defending it from allegations of shady ties to foreign entities, without disclosing his conflict of interest. ABC News policy requires that reporters disclose to management such conflicts.
Following the revelation, Stephanopoulos said he will no longer moderate the network's February GOP debate in New Hampshire, but Americans want him removed from all programming related to the 2016 elections, according to Rasmussen.
Forty-six percent of voters told the polling organization that since Clinton is running for president, they think ABC should ban Stephanopoulos from all programming related to the 2016 presidential cycle. Thirty-four percent said they are now less likely to believe ABC News because of the failure to disclose the donations.
Forty-eight percent of respondents said they think media bias is a bigger problem in politics than campaign contributions, while 44 percent said money in politics is the biggest problem.
Rasmussen surveyed 1,000 likely voters between May 17 and 18 and reported a margin of sampling error of plus or minus three percentage points.
