Fox News viewers are more likely to believe that Barack Obama was not born in the U.S., and that the U.S. is currently on the wrong track.
Recently, the Obama Administration has decided to take a more aggressive response to what they believe is the increasing frequency of news stories that are misleading or simply not true. The White House communications director Anita Dunn pointed the finger at Fox News, describing it as “opinion journalism masquerading as news.” Dunn’s point was that Fox covers news and issues that are not ideological, but rather partisan.
An online survey conducted by Angus Reid Strategies asked a representative sample of 1,009 American adults whether they believed Fox News was a political or a news organization.
On average, respondents agreed that Fox News was more of a news organization than a political organization. However, nearly a third of respondents (32%) believe that Fox News is a political organization.
Differences of Opinion
Differences of opinion on the nature of Fox News are demonstrable by region and income level. Nearly three-quarters of Southerners agree with the argument that Fox News is a news organization that makes a distinct separation between their news and punditry. Only 59 per cent of those living in the West agreed.
Additionally, the more educated and wealthier the survey respondent was, the more likely they were to be skeptical about Fox media’s claim to be an unbiased source of news. The skepticism gap among those of different means is estimated at 13 points (See Table 1).
Influence of Fox News
While it is difficult to disentangle the direction of causality, 63 per cent of regular Fox News viewers strongly agreed that the political opinions of most viewers are heavily influenced by the content they watch on Fox News. However, when it came to those same regular Fox News viewers, 77 per cent denied that their own opinions are influenced by the content they view on Fox News.
When compared against the general population, Fox News viewers are significantly less likely to believe that Obama was born in the US, and that one of the most important problems facing the U.S. is leadership. Only 56 per cent of regular Fox viewers , compared to 70 per cent of the general population, believe that Obama was born in the US. The percentage of Republicans who believe Obama was born outside the US is less than half.
Fox News viewers are also more likely than the general population to say they are financially worse off than they were a year ago (51% compared to 46%). Curiously though, these same Fox viewers were slightly less likely to indicate that unemployment and the economy are the most important problem facing the nation.
Fox News viewers are significantly less optimistic about the country’s direction. Nearly 71 per cent of regular Fox News viewers—compared to 56 per cent of the general population—believe that the US is on the wrong track.
