President Joe Biden has a sizable lead in the polls among people who still follow traditional news media - papers, cable and network television - over former President Donald Trump, a new NBC News poll indicates.
The survey, which was conducted by a bipartisan group of pollsters, revealed that Biden holds an 11-point lead over Trump among traditional news consumers. The gap between the two candidates is narrower when looking at digital news consumers, where Trump leads Biden 47% to 44%.
"It's almost comic. If you're one of the remaining Americans who say you read a newspaper to get news, you are voting for Biden by 49 points," Republican pollster Bill McInturff told NBC News.
People who don't follow political news at all tend to favor Trump and third-party candidates by a massive margin - with just 27% favoring Biden, compared to 53% favoring Trump.
"These are voters who have tuned out information, by and large, and they know who they are supporting, and they aren't moving," Democratic pollster Jeff Horwitt told NBC News. "That's why it's hard to move this race based on actual news. They aren't seeing it, and they don't care."
The 15% of the electorate that doesn't follow political news is also more likely to back third-party candidates. When presented with a five-way ballot - featuring Robert F. Kennedy Jr, Cornell West and Jill Stein - a quarter of these voters chose one of the third-party options.
The voters, however, are less reliable supporters than those who follow political news. Fifty-nine percent of the poll respondents who voted in both the most recent midterm and general election said that they followed traditional news media. Forty percent of consistent voters follow digital media and just nine percent don't follow the news at all.
