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by pavlov 3463 days ago
The same YouGov poll shows that 46% of Trump voters believe the inane "Pizzagate" conspiracy theory is true:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/rampage/wp/2016/12/28/am...

That is a scary example of what we can look forward to. Now that people don't believe in "mainstream" journalism, they'll latch on to wild speculations with no actual research or journalistic ethics. That is net loss for the truth, no matter how much one dislikes the New York Times and other old media.
2 comments
DrScump 3463 days ago
The exact quote is:

"On the other hand, nearly half of Trump supporters give at least some credence to the Pizzagate rumors. In contrast, 57% of Clinton voters say that is definitely not true (some, however, answered that it could be true),"

Putting aside the fact that this is shortly after "Pizzagate" was first widely reported and therefore a topic of broad discussion (of whatever quality) at the time...

... the contrast is that "nearly half" of Trump supporters give "at least some credence", as opposed to 43% of Clinton supporters. At most, that a whopping 6 percentage point difference. This is news?

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matt4077 3463 days ago
Look at the chart again. The 43% of Clinton voters includes those answering "probably not true". That category is not included in the 46% of Trump supporters, only "definitely/probably true".
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tzs 3463 days ago
> ... the contrast is that "nearly half" of Trump supporters give "at least some credence", as opposed to 43% of Clinton supporters. At most, that a whopping 6 percentage point difference. This is news?

It's a 30 percentage point difference.

Here are the numbers from the poll.

Definitely True: 4% Clinton Voters, 11% Trump voters, 5% other voters

Probably True: 13%/35%/29%

Probably Not True: 25%/40%/35%

Definitely Not True: 57%/13%/31%

https://d25d2506sfb94s.cloudfront.net/cumulus_uploads/docume...

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pavlov 3463 days ago
Look at the first graphic. It's 46% of Trump voters vs. 17% of Clinton voters (which is still insanely high, for a theory so easily discredited).
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DrScump 3463 days ago
The graphic directly conflicts with the text.
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delinka 3463 days ago
"...wild speculations with no actual research or journalistic ethics."

Which is often what "mainstream journalism" offers. So how do we get back to Ethics in Journalism when what we have is driven by number of visitors?

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pavlov 3463 days ago
Quality news tends to be behind a paywall. That really is the best indicator these days.
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