Only 1 in 4 Americans still believes America has a 'free' press. Gallup's latest poll finds that 62% of U.S. adults say the media favors one political party over the other, up from about 50% in past years.
When Gallup last asked this question in February 2003, Americans were about evenly divided on the issue. Americans were also evenly split when the question was first asked in April 1995. In December 2000, in the midst of the election results recount between George W. Bush and Al Gore, slightly more Americans perceived partisan bias in the news media (51%) than believed the news media was politically neutral (41%).
Republicans are mostly responsible for the increase in perceptions of partisan media bias since 2003.
Currently, 77% of Republicans say the media favors one party over the other; in 2003, 59% of Republicans said the same. By comparison, 44% of Democrats now say the media plays favorites, unchanged from the 44% who said so in 2003.
Almost two-thirds (64%) of those who believe the media favors a political party say it is the Democratic Party. Only about a third as many (22%) believe the media favors Republicans.
The belief that the media favors Democrats stems mostly from Republicans and may be the result of a continued animus between the two parties, as well as a tendency among conservatives to accuse the media of a liberal bias. Nearly half of Democrats agree that the media favors their own party, which means most Americans think reporters have a liberal predilection.
In addition to saying the news media favors one party over the other, Americans also say that news organizations are often wrong in their reporting. Fifty-five percent of U.S. adults say that news organizations' stories and reports are "often inaccurate."