The Goldberg/Hayes story is indicative of a larger trend. Audiences of right-wing media outlets like Fox News, Newsmax, and One America News Network want nothing to do with opposing Trump, even if it means they’re going against the truth. Republicans not receiving news from these networks would be much more disadvantageous to the former President.
Almost unanimously (88% to 11%), Republican voters who prefer to receive their news from the conservative media believe that President Joe Biden did not legitimately receive enough votes to win. appoint the president. In other words, almost all Republicans in the conservative media audience think an obvious falsehood is true.
A majority of Republican voters (57%) follow digital or cable news and don’t list Fox News, Newsmax or OANN (like The New York Times, for example, or say they don’t have a favorite) because their primary source also falsely believes Biden did not win the election legally. However, this is much smaller than for those who prefer to receive their news from the conservative media. In addition, a significantly larger percentage of these Republicans (42%) believe it is true that Biden received enough votes legally to be elected president.
The difference between the two, however, is more than simply their views on the 2020 election. It’s the importance of those views to their identities as Republicans.
Republican voters who prefer to receive their news from Fox, Newsmax or OANN are three times more likely (57% to 18%) to show that Trump winning the 2020 election is important to them.
That is to say, even if the majority of Republicans, no matter where they want to get their news, have untrue beliefs about 2020, those views are much more deeply rooted in the society. with people who like conservative news outlets.
Another piece of data perhaps indicates this better. Only 11% of conservative media buffs say thinking Trump won in 2020 doesn’t matter at all to what it means to be a Republican. That number spiked to 38% among Republican voters who preferred other news outlets.
More importantly, this demonstrates that a much larger percentage of non-conservative media audiences say a Trump victory is not important to their GOP identity at all than those who say it is. . The opposite is true for Republican voters who prefer conservative media.
Now, perhaps the big question is whether this is a correlation (i.e. Trump fans are less likely to view conservative media) or causation (i.e. media conservatives). is leading people to believe that Biden didn’t legitimately win).
The answer could be both. That’s right, Republicans who like to get their news from the conservative media are more likely to vote for Trump in 2020 (99% to 83%) of those who vote.
But even among Republicans who voted for Trump, 31% of those who prefer to get their news outside the conservative media believe Biden has legitimately won. This is a low percentage, but it is significantly higher than the 10% who prefer to receive their news from Fox News, Newsmax or OANN.
Likewise, the percentage of Republican Trump voters who like their news from non-conservative agencies and think Trump winning in 2020 is crucial to the Republican identity (21%) ) is only about a third of those who like to take theirs. news from conservative media (60%).
In the future, it seems likely that the divergent views of Trump among Republicans about news consumption choices will disappear. Republicans who prefer to get their news from Fox News, Newsmax or One America News Network are still far larger Trump fans than those who don’t.
53% of Republican voters who received coverage from the conservative media said that supporting Trump is important to being a Republican. Only 21% of those get their media from other TV or digital sources.
Another way to gauge this is to examine those who think supporting Trump is completely unimportant to their Republican identity. It could be argued that these are some of the most ardent anti-Trump Republicans.
Only 8% of Republican voters who prefer conservative media say it doesn’t matter at all to support Trump. Among those who prefer to get their news from other sources, the figure is 35%.
Anti-Trump resistance in the GOP is low no matter where you go, but it’s much lower among conservative media buffs.
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