Paul Bedard:
“…Media hate isn’t just a GOP thing anymore.
Pollster Jonathan Zogby shared with us fresh results showing that big majorities of Republicans and Democrats support censoring the media “from spreading false information and half truths.”
In analyzing his new data from the Zogby Analytics poll, he suggested that the GOP’s distrust of liberal reporters and the Democrats’ concern that the media legitimizes racist groups are to blame.
Overall, 73% backed some form of censorship, and 19% opposed any meddling.
But there were groups with higher support for reining in the media, especially Republicans and older voters.
The survey found that 84% of Republicans support some form of censorship. But even a sizable majority of Democrats support censorship at 68%.
And nearly 9 in 10 swing voters support censorship. “Support for censoring the media increased significantly among ‘swing voters’ (87% at least somewhat supported/11% at least somewhat opposed), who voted for each Obama and Trump in the last two presidential elections,” read the analysis.
Zogby concluded:
“While it’s hard to determine what voters deem news and whatnot, strong majorities of all voters, including older voters, Republicans, Democrats, large city voters, and college graduates support censoring media. While people believe some media online and on social media legitimize hate speech or racist ideas, there are rights guaranteed under the Constitution, specifically freedom of speech, and if we start tinkering with those tenants of our existence, we might set a precedent that could limit our guaranteed freedoms. We can always call out hate and racism, and take the horrible people who spread these ideas to task, but we cannot blindly disregard our protection of free speech, which is the right of good and bad people alike.”…”