Poll: Majority of Americans believe the media favors one political party, is 'often inaccurate

A majority of Americans believe the news media favors one political party, according to a new Gallup poll.

According to the poll, 62 percent of Americans believe that the media favors one party over the other, while only 27 percent believe it favors neither party.

Gallup asked respondents, who said that the media favors a party, which party it favors: 64 percent said the media favors Democrats, and 22 percent said it favors Republicans.

Gallup notes that in 2003, the last time they asked the question, Americans were about evenly divided on media bias. They were also about evenly divided when Gallup first asked the question in 1995.

In December 2000, during the election recount between former President George W. Bush and his opponent, former Vice President Al Gore, just over half of Americans — 51 percent — said that the media had a partisan bias, while 41 said it did not.

Gallup notes that Americans who say that the media favors one party have consistently believed that it favors Democrats.

The poll found that Republicans were more likely to say the media is biased. Forty-three percent of Democrats said that the media favors the Democratic Party.

Gallup also found that 55 percent of Americans say news stories are "often inaccurate," while 36 percent say that news organizations generally report stories correctly.