New York (AFP)
Republicans have confidence in Fox News, Democrats in CNN, but each side is wary of the other's favorite media, according to a new poll that confirms media polarization in the United States.
Conservative-lined magnate Rupert Murdoch's Fox News channel is believed to be reliable by 65% of Republican supporters, but considered questionable by 61% of Democratic supporters, according to the poll published on Friday by the independent institute Pew Research Center.
The proportion is even more pronounced among Republicans who identify as conservative, with 75% of them considering Fox News as a reliable source of information.
At the same time, the CNN chain has the confidence of 67% of Democrats, but 58% of Republicans are wary of it.
Since his successful presidential campaign, Donald Trump has regularly attacked CNN, accusing him of distorting reality and systematically seeking to discredit it.
The fact is that the perception of the WarnerMedia group's channel deteriorated significantly between 2014 and 2019 among Republicans.
Only 33% did not consider it reliable five years ago, but are now 58% in this case.
Other prime targets of the American president have also lost ground among Republicans, mainly the New York Times (only 15% judge it reliable), the Washington Post (13%) and the MSNBC channel (18%).
All populations combined, CNN nevertheless remains the second source of information considered to be the most reliable (47%), behind the large generalist chain ABC (48%).
Identified on the left, the news channel MSNBC, whose audiences are however twice that of CNN in the United States, has the confidence of only 34% of those polled.
Another conclusion of the investigation, the Republicans have a general distrust vis-à-vis the media, when the democratic sympathizers judge, on average, more reliable sources among the large national media.
The survey was conducted online from October 29 to November 11, 2019 with a representative sample of 12,043 people.
© 2020 AFP