More Americans say the press is too easy on Donald Trump than said so of the Republican presidential nominees in 2012 and 2008.
Almost three in 10 Americans – or 27 percent – feel that Trump is treated too easily by the media, according to a new Pew Research Center survey. That’s more than the 20 percent who said Mitt Romney was getting the easy treatment in 2012 and nearly twice the 15 percent who said John McCain was getting soft coverage in 2008.
Nearly the same percentage of Americans – 23 percent – think the press is too tough on Trump, about the same as felt that way about Romney in 2012 and McCain in 2008.
As for coverage of Hillary Clinton, views of whether she is being treated too easily tend to be more similar to recent election cycles, Pew said.
The sense that Trump is being treated too lightly comes mostly from Democrats, Pew said. About four in 10 Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents view the media coverage as too easy, nearly twice the share who said the same of McCain coverage in 2008 and 16 percentage points higher than views of Romney’s coverage in 2012.
Trump insists the press is too tough on him: He spent considerable time during the Republican primary ranting at what he called a “totally dishonest press” which he blamed for negative coverage, including a failure to show the true size of crowds at his rallies.
His favorite targets have included CNN – which he dubbed “the Clinton news network,” The New York Times, which he says is “losing a fortune” – and will be “out of business in three years” -- and the Washington Post.
A report over the summer from the Harvard Kennedy School’s Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics and Public Policy found that coverage of the primaries focused on the horse race over the issues – “to the detriment of candidates and voters alike.”
Lesley Clark: 202-383-6054, @lesleyclark