Poll: Nearly Half of Americans Think Media Is Making up Stories on Trump

President Donald Trump speaks at the White House on Oct. 12, 2017. (Benjamin Chasteen/The Epoch Times)

Nearly half of Americans believe the media make up stories about President Donald Trump.

A survey from Politico/Morning Consult found that 46 percent thought as much. About 37 percent of voters disagree and 17 percent are undecided, the poll discovered.

Seventy-six percent of Republicans believe the media fabricates stories to smear Trump and his administration, the poll found. About 20 percent of Democrats believe the same, and 65 percent of Democrats disagree with the claim that news outlets are making up stories.

Twenty-eight percent of voters think the government should be able to take away broadcast licenses from news organizations. Fifty-one percent disagree that the government should have such power, and 21 percent are undecided, the survey said.

The poll surveyed 1,991 registered voters and was carried out from Oct. 12 to Oct. 16. It has a margin of error of 2 percentage points.

“Network news has become so partisan, distorted and fake that licenses must be challenged and, if appropriate, revoked,” Trump said on Twitter this week. “Not fair to public!”

For months, Trump has pilloried the “fake news” media, namely CNN and The New York Times, saying those organizations have treated him “unfairly.”

The Pew Research Center earlier this month discovered that during the first 60 days of his presidency, 62 percent of the media’s coverage of Trump was negative, while 5 percent was positive.

The study noted that the media coverage of former President Obama was 42 percent positive and 20 percent negative. Former President George W. Bush had 28 percent negative and 22 percent positive in 2001, Pew noted.