Pew: What the public wants from the media

Publics worldwide overwhelmingly agree that the news media should be unbiased in their political coverage: A median of 75% across 38 countries, according to a 2018 Pew Research Center survey.

Yet, these publics give their news media low marks on covering political issues fairly. A median of 44% say their media do a bad job in this area, including 52% in the U.S.

Sharp partisan differences in views of the news media exist in 20 of 38 countries surveyed. The U.S. shows the largest partisan gap by far at 34 percentage points, with Republicans having more negative views.

– Amy Mitchell, Director of Journalism Research, and Katie Simmons, Associate Director of Research, Pew Research Center