Over half of U.S. adults surveyed recently said the news media has done a good job or better responding to the coronavirus pandemic, the Pew Research Center reported Wednesday.
Conducted between March 19 and 25, the survey sought input from more than 11,000 adults across the country about the global health crisis and how it is being handled.
Asked specifically to rate the news media’s job at responding to the coronavirus outbreak, 15% of respondents answered excellent, 39% replied good and 25% said it was only fair.
The results indicated that the media’s handling of the pandemic is viewed differently by members of opposing political parties, however.
Among respondents identified as Democrats and Democratic-leaning, 21% rated the media’s response as excellent, 46% replied good and 20% said fair.
Comparatively, only 8% of Republicans rated the media’s response as excellent, 29% rated it as good and 30% rated it fair, according to the Pew report.
The first case of COVID-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus, was reported in China in late December. It has since spread to nearly every country on the globe, infecting more than a million people including tens of thousands who died after contracting the disease.
Asked to rate how public health officials like those at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control have responded to the pandemic, 79% of adults surveyed by Pew answered good or excellent.
Fewer than half of respondents rated President Trump’s response as such, meanwhile. Asked to describe how the president is doing at responding to the outbreak, 23% replied excellent, 25% replied good and 19% said fair.
• Andrew Blake can be reached at ablake@washingtontimes.com.
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