Exhibit 2-27: In Campaign 2012, Most Voters (Again) Saw Media Favoring Obama
A Rasmussen poll taken in the summer of 2012 found that, as in past years, the public perceived the media providing more favorable news coverage to the Democratic nominee. A second Rasmussen poll taken a month later showed most voters declared media bias was a “bigger problem than big campaign contributions.”
KEY FINDINGS:
An August 2012 Rasmussen poll of 1,000 likely voters found “most voters think President Obama has gotten better treatment from the media than Mitt Romney has, and they expect that biased coverage to continue.”
According to the poll, nearly six out of ten voters (59%) said they thought President Obama had “received the best treatment from the media so far,” compared to less than one-in-five (18%) who thought Republican challenger Mitt Romney had been treated better.
As for what these voters expected for the remainder of the campaign, 51 percent said they thought the media would continue to help Obama, compared to just nine percent who expected positive coverage for Romney.
The 2012 findings echo polls from 2008 and earlier campaigns which consistently found the public perceived the news media to be giving better coverage Democratic nominee.
A September 2012 Rasmussen poll found nearly half of the 1,000 likely voters surveyed (47%) thought media bias was a bigger problem in elections than big campaign contributions, with 42 percent selecting big contributions as the bigger problem.
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