President Donald Trump’s proposed “fake news” trophy has been awarded to the news outlet that is widely known to be among his favorites.
A poll from conservative-leaning outlet Rasmussen finds that an overwhelming 40 percent of voters picked Fox News as the victor, the news network the president regularly points to as providing his administration with its most fair and honest coverage.
Two in five of the 1,000 poll respondents picked Fox, followed by CNN at 25 percent, MSNBC at 9 percent, ABC at 4 percent, CBS at 3 percent and NBC at 2 percent.
Fox amassed 53 percent of the vote from among Democratic respondents and 42 percent from among those who said they weren’t affiliated with any party.
By comparison, 40 percent of Republicans tabbed CNN as being deserving of the trophy, nearly two times more than the number of GOP respondents (24 percent) fingering Fox.
When he proposed the “fake news trophy,” Trump insisted the award should go to the network that has the “most dishonest, corrupt and/or distorted” coverage of him.
He specified that the contest shouldn’t include Fox, presumably because of his affinity for the network.
The Washington Post recently pointed out that Trump made the argument the media as a whole cannot be trusted, before enthusiastically calling attention to a story by Politico , long one of his favorite whipping boys, that found 46 percent of Americans believe some news networks fabricate reports about him.
In the past, Trump has also saluted the site over coverage he perceived to be favorable about him, including his plan for brokering peace in the Middle East, his thoughts about political correctness and his recognition of Sean Hannity’s strong ratings on Fox.
In between all that, Trump has previously blasted Politico as “the dumbest and most slanted political sites, a “phony, third-rate, dishonest scam,” published by “losers, clowns, serious haters” and “some very untalented reporters.”
At times, even Fox has not been immune to his onslaught of sharp criticisms. Back when he was still a candidate, Trump briefly refused to appear on the network in protest over coverage he thought was unfair to him.
