A new poll found that while Donald Trump voters overwhelmingly preferred Fox News over other media outlets, Clinton voters received their information from a wide range of sources.
Among Americans who say they voted for Trump, 40 percent cited Fox News as their main news outlet, according to a Pew Research Survey released on Wednesday. Every other outlet was in the single digits. CNN — subject of Donald Trump's Twitter screeds — influenced 8 percent of his voters, Facebook had 7 percent, NBC had 6 percent, local television stations had 5 percent, and ABC, CBS, and local radio were tied at 3 percent each.
For Americans who say they voted for Clinton, however, there was much more diversity. While CNN took the lead with 18 percent, it was closely followed by MSNBC with 9 percent, Facebook with 8 percent, Local TV with 8 percent, NPR with 7 percent, ABC with 6 percent, New York Times with 5 percent, CBS with 5 percent, NBC with 4 percent, Local Newspapers with 4 percent and Fox News with 3 percent.
Among all voters, Fox News was the leader with 19 percent. It was followed by CNN with 13 percent, Facebook with 8 percent, Local TV with 7 percent, NBC with 5 percent, MSNBC with 5 percent, ABC with 5 percent, NPR with 4 percent, CBS with 4 percent, New York Times with 3 percent, and Local Newspapers with 3 percent.
These findings were consistent with a study conducted in January 2016 which found that Trump voters, rather than being uninformed, were instead much more likely to be misinformed than regular voters — often willfully so.
"Telltale signs of misinformation, for example, were on display in a focus group of Trump supporters run by Republican media consultant Frank Luntz," wrote Anne Pluta of FiveThirtyEight.com at the time. "Not only did negative information about Trump that was presented by Luntz to the group strengthen support for the candidate, participants held on more confidently to their misinformation as the session progressed. As Nyhan and Reifler’s research suggests, attempts to present corrections and generate counterarguments to the group’s beliefs only strengthened their opinions."
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