New Poll Finds Chunk of Fox News Viewers Trust Network Less After Blockbuster Dominion Revelations
AP Photo/Mark Lennihan, File
A new poll shed some insight into how the Fox News audience is responding to bombshell internal communications between Fox News hosts and executives made public as part of the ongoing lawsuit from Dominion Voting Systems.
Among other stunning revelations, text messages showed the private feelings of top hosts and executives about both former President Donald Trump and his bogus allegations that the 2020 election was stolen. Dominion filed the lawsuit arguing that Fox acted “recklessly” in their coverage of the 2020 election, while Fox maintains that their coverage is protected by the First Amendment.
In the wake of the revelations, Variety commissioned the survey from Maru Group, who questioned “1,524 randomly selected American adults who are Maru Springboard America online panelists.”
The survey was conducted on March 10-12 and divided the participants into two groups — Fox viewers who are aware of the lawsuit and those who are unaware.
The results revealed that 60 percent of Fox News viewers had “heard of the Dominion lawsuit” which was “less than viewers of CNN and MSNBC,” two networks that have covered the lawsuit heavily.
According to the poll, 21% percent of Fox News viewers said they trust the network less following the release of evidence in the Dominion case.
Nine percent of Fox viewers said they were watching the network less since those revelations, while other viewers said they have watched Fox more in recent weeks.
The survey found that whether viewers knew about the lawsuit or not, Fox News viewers were more likely to believe the 2020 election was rigged. From the report:
57% of Fox News viewers aware of the lawsuit believe the 2020 election was stolen due to voter fraud, slightly ahead of the 54% of unaware viewers who said so.
The new revelations led to some minds being changed about the election. After the texts and Murdoch’s deposition were made public, 17 percent of viewers who are aware of the Dominion lawsuit “now do not believe the 2020 election was stolen.” Eight percent of Fox viewers unaware of the lawsuit “now do not believe the 2020 election was stolen.”
Yet 49 percent of viewers who were aware of the lawsuit, and 51 percent of viewers unaware of the lawsuit, say the text messages had “No effect, I still believe the 2020 election was stolen.”
