On the eve of agreeing to pay Dominion Voting Systems $787.5 million for repeatedly airing false claims about Dominion’s role in a supposedly “stolen” 2020 election, Fox News took out full-page newspaper ads reassuring everyone that people still trusted Fox’s journalism.
“Trusted Now,” the ads said, citing polling, “More Than Ever.”
The way the ads framed the data they relied on was misleading, but regardless, surveys from shortly before and after the settlement paint a decidedly different picture, and it’s much less rosy: Americans do not trust Fox to be truthful and judge Fox pretty harshly for the Dominion episode.
In a new poll from the Economist and YouGov, Americans say, 51 percent to 21 percent, that Fox hosts said things about the 2020 election that they knew to be untrue. Remarkably, even Fox’s base of Republican-leaning Americans takes a dim view: Nearly as many Republicans said Fox hosts effectively lied (31 percent) as dispute that assertion (34 percent). The near-even split was similar among supporters of Donald Trump: 30-35.
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The poll also shows Fox ranking last for “accurate” coverage of the 2020 election. Only 12 percent overall said Fox’s 2020 coverage was “almost always accurate,” which was less than the percentages for CNN, MSNBC, ABC, NBC and CBS. And less than half (49 percent) said Fox’s coverage was at least “mostly accurate.” This was again lower than all six broadcast outlets tested, which ranged between 56 percent and 58 percent....
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