Trust the Media? Republicans, Dems 'Living in Alternate Universes'

In this age of "fake news" and "alternative facts," it stands to reason that Republicans and Democrats view the news media differently, but a new poll from Berkeley IGS shows just how large the chasm is among California voters.

"Republicans and Democrats seem to be living in alternate universes," said poll director Mark DiCamillo.

"We're seeing very huge -- 40- to 50-point differences -- between how Democrats and Republicans view the news media. It used to be you’d only get those kinds of differences on political campaigns involving Democrats versus Republicans or very partisan issues. Now it seems to be permeating the entire gamut of issues."

In the survey of 1,000 California registered voters, 79 percent of Republicans have little or no faith in how journalists cover the news, while 84 percent think coverage of President Trump has been "too critical."

That's a stark contrast with Democrats, with 75 percent saying they have a great deal or a fair amount of trust in the media. Fully 62 percent think the media have not been critical enough of the Trump administration.

"The entire last election cycle and now the first 100 days of the Trump administration have created a situation of hyper-partisanship," DiCamillo said. "Most of the opinions we’re obtaining now on whatever issue we're covering seem to have a very partisan tinge to them."

Republicans are also less confident than Democrats that they can discern whether political reports are reliable.

Of course the media landscape is far more diverse today, with everything from the New York Times and Wall Street Journal to blog posts, social media and BuzzFeed. So when you ask someone whether they trust the media, it's not entirely clear which media they mean.

"We wanted to get their views on the entire mass media, all the information they're getting about the larger world," DiCamillo said. "It's likely that the internet is contributing to this hyperpartisan perspective because now you can have various sites that are tailoring to one political perspective or another."

It's nothing new for presidents, Democrat and Republican, to complain about media coverage. But the Berkeley IGS survey comes as President Trump continues a kind of war against journalists, calling them among other things "enemies of the people." On Wednesday the Los Angeles Times editorialized about it.

Pollster DiCamillo says it doesn't bode well for the country.

"It's a long-term problem for the country," DiCamillo said. "I do think it poses threats to the health of the democracy."