JOSEPH PREZIOSO/AFP/Getty Images
A whopping 68% of Fox News viewers blame the Jan. 6 attack on “Left-wing protesters trying to make Trump look bad,” the most of any viewership group by almost double.
Respondents to a new Yahoo! News/YouGov poll, were asked “How much are each of the following to blame for the January 6 attack on the Capitol?”
Among all respondents, the least-popular response was “Left wing protesters trying to make Trump look bad” with 43 percent saying they were to blame either “a great deal” or “some” for the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol.
But in extended crosstabs for that poll, 68% of Fox News viewers said that “Left wing protesters trying to make Trump look bad” were to blame either “a great deal” or “some” for the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol.
That’s more than double the 32% of CNN viewers and 25% of MSNBC viewers who say left-wing protesters were to blame either “a great deal” or “some” for the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol. 37% of respondents who “don’t watch” any of the networks said the same.
Fox viewers were also least likely to say that then-President Donald Trump “is most to blame for the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol?”, while MSNBC viewers were most likely to say so. Trump was also the top pick for most blame among all respondents.
Yahoo’s Andrew Romano writes that differences in cable news viewership color perceptions of the hearings drastically:
Only half of Americans (50%) report watching the hearings live or catching news coverage later, roughly the same percentage that paid attention to the committee’s first prime-time hearing earlier this month. And more Biden voters (78%) continue to watch either live or later than Trump voters (35%).
As a result, public opinion on questions such as whether Trump “pressured the U.S. Department of Justice to declare that the 2020 election was ‘illegal’ and ‘corrupt’ — a claim that was first reported last year and corroborated by senior department officials during last Thursday’s hearing — still varies wildly by viewing habits. Clear majorities of MSNBC viewers (82%), CNN viewers (61%) and live-hearing viewers (78%) say they believe it; sizable numbers of Fox News viewers (30%) and Americans who don’t watch cable news (40%) or the hearings (45%) say they’re not sure.
Fox News did not carry the first hearing live, although their newscasters did cover the proceedings on the lower-rated Fox Business Network.
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