President Donald Trump’s attacks on the mainstream media may be rooted in statistical reality: An extensive review of subscription data and election results shows that Trump outperformed the previous Republican nominee, Mitt Romney, in counties with the lowest numbers of news subscribers, but didn't do nearly as well in areas with heavier circulation.
POLITICO’s findings — which put Trump’s escalating attacks on the media in a new context — were drawn from a comparison of election results and subscription information from the Alliance for Audited Media, an industry group that verifies print and digital circulation for advertisers. The findings cover more than 1,000 mainstream news publications in more than 2,900 counties out of 3,100 nationwide from every state except Alaska, which does not hold elections at the county level.
The results show a clear correlation between low subscription rates and Trump’s success in the 2016 election, both against Hillary Clinton and when compared to Romney in 2012. Those links were statistically significant even when accounting for other factors that likely influenced voter choices, such as college education and employment, suggesting that the decline of local media sources by itself may have played a role in the election results.
That gives new force to the widely voiced concerns of news-industry professionals and academicians about Trump’s ability to make bold assertions about crime rates, unemployment and other verifiable facts without any independent checks. Those concerns, which initially were raised during the campaign, were largely based on anecdotes and observations. POLITICO’s analysis suggests that Trump did, indeed, do worse overall in places where independent media could check his claims.
And as we know Trump also outperforms in places where the local news comes from Sinclair Broadcasting, and where Fox News is the favorite cable news outlet.
We always wonder how Trump can continue to simply make shit up all the time, and not have it destroy his credibility.
The answer is that people don't that he is making it up unless a reliable news outlet fact checks him.
Which of course is also why there are so many attacks on the established mainstream media, and accusations of "fake news" directed at respected newspapers like the Washington Post and the New York Times.
So long as there are Americans isolated from fact based news reporting there will be a Donald Trump to take advantage of their ignorance.
If we want to help this country perhaps it's time to start buying our friends and family their own subscriptions to some of that "liberal" news media.
Source https://ift.tt/2JDzYyM
