A new Rasmussen survey released Friday reveals an alarming suspicion among 58 percent of likely voters that “the media are ‘truly the enemy of the people,’ including 34% who Strongly Agree.”
The survey also found that 36 percent don’t agree with that assessment, including 23 percent who strongly disagree.
However, according to Rasmussen, “Eighty-three percent (83%) of voters now think ‘fake news’ is a serious problem in the media, including 55% who say it’s a Very Serious problem. Fourteen percent (14%) don’t think ‘fake news’ is a serious problem.”
Rasmussen’s survey comes coincidentally with a blistering news release from the Second Amendment Foundation blasting the media for bias when it comes to reporting about the positive aspect of using a firearm for self-defense. It is happening more frequently, and SAF’s criticism comes on the heels of an incident in Louisiana involving a 12-year-old boy who fatally shot an alleged armed home invader who was attacking the boy’s mother late last month. The story has only recently been reported. According to published reports, the boy used an unidentified hunting rifle to stop the attack.
“Why are the gun prohibition lobby and their bought and paid for politicians and media mouth pieces ignoring stories like this,” wondered SAF founder and Executive Vice President Alan M. Gottlieb.
Gottlieb co-authored “Good Guys with Guns,” “Right to Carry” and “America Fights Back”—books dealing with firearms and self-defense by private citizens. He asserted that cases of armed self-defense seem to vanish from the headlines almost immediately.
However, according to the SAF news release, “let a tragedy involving a firearm occur, and it becomes the launchpad for on-air interviews with gun control proponents, lengthy newspaper articles about past incidents and editorials demanding additional restrictions on the right to keep and bear arms.” Recently, AmmoLand News tackled that subject, noting how the media has adopted a phrase invented by the gun prohibition lobby to demonize firearms: “gun violence.” No other weapon, whether a knife, blunt instrument, bricks or bare hands is verbally linked to homicide in such a manner.
“We’ve seen the media celebrate the heroics of private citizens who pull people out of crashed cars or burning buildings,” Gottlieb observed, “but if an armed citizen stops a restaurant gunman or kills a dangerous home invader, or even saves the life of a law enforcement officer, that story vanishes from the headlines quicker than coherency from a Joe Biden speech.”
There have been such cases, many detailed in “Good Guys With Guns” and “America Fights Back.”
Gottlieb openly challenged the media to explain why it doesn’t cover the good stories as sensationally as the tragic ones. He also accused the gun prohibition lobby of suddenly “developing lockjaw” whenever an armed private citizen successfully uses a firearm to save a life. It used to be that gun control advocates would repeatedly insist each new restriction with the justification “if it saves one life.” But what about saving lives via armed intervention?
“Armed private citizen heroes, regardless of age, may not fit the media narrative,” Gottlieb posited, “but they fit the American mold. Instead of sweeping such stories under the nearest rug, we should celebrate that fact that such courage exists, along with the fundamental right to keep and bear arms that allows people to be victors rather than victims.”
But will that prevent the media from continuing on its present course? The public may be hard to convince, considering the Rasmussen poll results.
According to Rasmussen, the survey of 1,000 likely voters was conducted on July 7-8 and has a margin of sampling error is +/- 3 percentage points with a 95% level of confidence.
Among the revelations:
- Republicans are more likely to agree with former President Donald Trump’s description of the media as “truly the enemy of the people.” Seventy-six percent (76%) of GOP voters agree with that phrase, including 54% who Strongly Agree.
- Thirty-seven percent of Democrats and 61% of voters not affiliated with either major party also at least somewhat agree that the media are “truly the enemy of the people.”
- Even larger percentages across party lines believe that “fake news” is a serious problem in the media. Ninety-two percent (92%) of GOP voters say “fake news” is at least a Somewhat Serious problem in the media, including 68% who say it’s a Very Serious problem. Seventy-four percent (74%) of Democrats and 82% of unaffiliated voters think “fake news” is at least a Somewhat Serious problem in the media.
- Far more Democrats (56%) than Republicans or unaffiliated voters (25% for both) say they trust the political news they’re getting.
- Thirty-six percent (36%) don’t agree, including 23% who Strongly Disagree.
