43% of Republicans believe Trump should be given the right to close the media

As you know, after the arrival of Donald trump to power, he never ceases to criticize the media. The President has repeatedly said that the majority of publications focus on his work is biased, concentrating attention on the negative. Under attack regularly get the largest Newspapers and TV channels of the country such as Washington Post, NY Times and CNN. Came even before that, trump called the media «enemies of the people«.

A recent study conducted by Ipsos, shows that 43% of Republicans ready to give the American leader the right to close any media publications and television channels. That is almost half of the followers of Donald trump willing to sacrifice freedom of speech, in order to get rid of the criticism, voiced in the address of the President.

At the same time, the majority of the US population, 85%still believe that an independent press is an important pivot point for American democracy. While 68% of respondents believe: journalists need to defend against the attacks of the government and major players in the business. It is also interesting that in total 23% of respondents are willing to give the President powers to enable it to close the media. Moreover, 29% share the opinion trump that the media is «enemy of the people«.

Despite emergence of some disturbing trends, the overall situation with freedom of speech was not serious. It is noteworthy that the separation of respondents for party affiliation emerges a pretty clear picture that allows to identify the fans and opponents of media activities. For example, only 29% of Republicans believe that journalists try to do their work conscientiously, and 80% of representatives of this political force believe if the us media have a liberal bias.

Earlier, we wrote about meeting Donald trump and publisher of the NY Times, which ended in mutual accusations and mutual criticism. The President expressed the opinion that the press consciously covers his activities in a negative light, while Arthur Sulzberger reminded the American leader of the responsibility which he bears for the attacks on the media.

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