Pew: More Say Press Is Too Easy On Trump

Throughout the 2016 presidential race, the Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton campaigns have decried the news media for treating them too harshly. Americans, however, don’t seem to agree. Only a slim minority thinks the news media’s coverage of Trump and Clinton is too tough, a view the public also held in previous general elections.

In fact, more Americans say the media are too easy on Trump than said so of the Republican nominees in both 2012 and 2008. As for Clinton, views of whether she is being treated too easily tend to be more similar to recent election cycles.

Almost three-in-ten Americans (27%) feel that Trump is treated too easily by the media, according to a Pew Research Center survey of 1,000 adults conducted Sept. 15-18, 2016. That’s more than said so of Mitt Romney in 2012 (20%), and nearly twice the share who said so of John McCain in 2008 (15%).

A third (33%) also say this of Clinton, slightly more than felt the media were too easy on Barack Obama in 2012 (28%) but about in line with views of his treatment in 2008 (31%).

On the flip side, the public’s sense of whether the news media are being too tough on Trump is not different from Republican candidates in recent election cycles. Nearly the same portion of Americans think the press is too tough on him (23%) as felt the same about Romney in 2012 and McCain in 2008 (21% and 23%, respectively).

For Clinton, just 16% of Americans say the media have been too tough on her, which is on par with views in 2012 about how tough they were on Obama (15%). But more see coverage of Clinton as too tough than did so of Obama in 2008 (7%).