While most Americans say that both traditional and online media are reporting “fake news,” they’re more than twice as likely to attribute the falsehoods to deliberate deception rather than to incompetence, a new poll by Monmouth University reveals.
Nearly two-thirds (63%) of Americans say they’re either “regularly” (27%) or “occasionally” being fed fake news by traditional major TV and newspaper outlets.
Asked to cite the reason that these media report fake news, 39% say they do it “On purpose in order to push an agenda,” while only 17% say it is “By accident or because of poor fact checking.” Another 32% denied that traditional TV and newspaper media report fake news.
Regarding online news websites, Americans are even more distrustful, as 80% say these Internet outlets post fake news either regularly (41%) or occasionally (39%).
More than half (54%) say these news websites are doing it deliberately to push an agenda – more than three times those who blame unintentional mistakes and faulty research (17%). Only 11% say online news websites do not publish fake news.
By party, Democrats are much more trusting of both traditional and online media than are either Republicans or Independents. Half (50%) of Democrats say traditional major TV and newspaper outlines do not report fake news, compared to 29% of Independents and 15% of Republicans.
Likewise, regarding online news, 21% of Democrats say these websites do not report fake news, while only 7% of Independents and 4% of Republicans are as trusting.