By Dave Workman
Editor-in-Chief
Only 34 percent of likely voters believe the United States is headed in the right direction, according to a new Rasmussen survey, and 56 percent say they don’t find the media delivers accurate news.
Rasmussen keeps weekly track of how voters feel regarding the direction of the country. This week’s report is up one point from last week, but it is up by three points from a year ago, when 31 percent of poll respondents thought the country was on the right track. Sixty-one percent of likely voters polled recently said the nation is headed in the wrong direction.
A separate survey revealed only 16 percent of respondents think it is easier to find news they can trust, and 25 percent think media accuracy is “about the same.”
But beyond those numbers, things get interesting socially and politically.
According to Rasmussen, 30 percent said Fox News “is the cable TV news channel they are most likely to trust.” Coming in second place at 23 percent is CNN, while MSNBC and Newsmax are tied at 15 percent.
“Among those who say they trust cable news for political news, most name either Fox News (38%) or CNN (29%) as the most trusted channel,” Rasmussen said.
Perhaps not surprisingly, among Democrats, 40 percent say CNN is their most trusted news source, followed by MSNBC at 26 percent and Fox News at 16 percent. On the flip side, 46 percent of Republicans prefer Fox News, followed by Newsmax at 26 percent and CNN at a pitiful 11 percent.
An impressive 68 percent of Democrats say their most trusted source for political news is either network television or major cable news channels, Rasmussen discovered. Among Republicans, network trust shrinks to 51 percent and among Independents, only 39 percent depend upon networks or cable news channels.
Among Independent voters, 45 percent trust independent online news sources for political news, along with 34 percent of Republicans and 22 percent of Democrats, according to Rasmussen.
Interestingly, more men (33%) than women (26%) say they trust Fox News most, while more women (17%) than men (12%) “prefer MSNBC.”
