In a recent Occasional Planet on-line poll of 239 randomly selected Americans, a somewhat surprisingly high number of strong Republicans place their trust in the mainstream media. Those who identified themselves as strong Republicans were asked, \u201c<\/p>\n
Which of the following do you trust most (check one)?<\/p>\n
The responses among these strong Republicans were:<\/p>\n
Of course, this is all muddied when we don\u2019t really know how each respondent defines the media sources. For instance, if you were asked whether your local television stations are mainstream or conservative, could you make a strong argument that they\u2019re conservative because they reinforce traditional American values and never want to \u201crock the boat?\u201d<\/p>\n
Is CNN mainstream because they\u2019re not Fox or MSNBC, or are they liberal because they frequently state up front that President Trump is not telling the truth?<\/p>\n