• Home
• Communist Goals
• Humor
• Obama And The Left
• Books
• Obama Ayers Connections
• Links

 Feed

Majority Say Reporters Tried To Help Obama

As the presidential campaign comes to a close, a majority of voters (51%) say most reporters have tried to help Barack Obama win the presidency. Just seven percent (7%) think they tried to help John McCain.

Thirty-one percent (31%) say reporters have offered unbiased coverage, according to a new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey. Ten percent (10%) are undecided.

Men are far more suspicious than women. Fifty-seven percent (57%) of male voters think reporters actively favored Obama, compared to a plurality of female voters (46%).

Eighty-four percent (84%) of Republicans and 51% of unaffiliated voters say reporters have tried to help Obama, but just 24% of Democrats agree. Nearly half of Democrats (49%) say reporters tried to be unbiased, and only 12% think they tried to help McCain.

Pluralities of those who voted early, those who say they are certain to vote and first-time voters say most reporters tried to help Obama, but, in a potentially troubling sign for McCain's candidacy, voters in all three categories poll below the 51% national average.

The number of those suspecting a media tilt toward Obama has grown since June when just 44% believed reporters would try to help Obama get elected. At that time 13% thought they would work for McCain's benefit.

Fifty-nine percent (59%) of likely U.S. voters now expect Obama to be elected president.

The final Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll for Election 2008 shows Barack Obama with 52% of the vote while John McCain is six points back at 46%. One percent (1%) of voters say they'll select a third-party option while 1% remain undecided.

(Want a free daily e-mail update? If it's in the news, it's in our polls).

Sixty-eight percent (68%) of voters continue to believe most reporters try to help the candidate they want to win, while 23% think most try to offer unbiased coverage. Nine percent (9%) are undecided. These numbers have been fairly consistent through the summer.

Again, men are more suspicious than women, Republicans and unaffiliated voters more so than Democrats.

Forty-seven percent (47%) also believe that most reporters would hide information that might politically hurt a candidate they wanted to win. Thirty-three percent (33%) don't agree, with 20% undecided.

This suggests why even though voters overwhelmingly believe politicians will "break the rules to help people who give them a lot of money," 55% believe media bias is more of a problem than big campaign contributions.

Fifty percent (50%) said in a survey in July that the media makes the economy look worse than it is. Obama has taken a steady lead over McCain since mid-September when Wall Street's problems began dominating the news.

Similarly, in a poll last month, nearly one out of three voters (32%) said this year's presidential race is more negative than most. But 74% also said the media reports more on negative campaigning than the issues.

Now 40% say this year's campaign was more negative than most. Only 12% think it has been more positive than usual, while 46% rate it about the same as most recent elections. Forty percent (40%) of Republicans and 46% of Democrats say the campaign has been more negative than most, but they have different explanations for it.

Eighty-three percent (83%) of Democrats say Obama has run the more positive campaign, while 66% of Republicans believe McCain has. Unaffiliated voters by a 53% to 25% margin rate Obama's campaign more positive than McCain's.

Fifty-three percent (53%) of all voters say Obama's has been the more positive of the two campaigns, compared to 32% who believe that of McCain's. Fifteen percent (15%) are undecided.

Please sign up for the Rasmussen Reports daily e-mail update (it's free)… let us keep you up to date with the latest public opinion news.

This telephone survey of 1,000 Likely Voters was conducted by Rasmussen Reports on October 31, 2008. The margin of sampling error for the survey is +/- 3 percentage points with a 95% level of confidence.

Rasmussen Reports is an electronic publishing firm specializing in the collection, publication, and distribution of public opinion polling information.

Source: Rasmussen Reports

Comments

Copyright © 2007 Against Barack Obama