Your perception about whether America’s economy is thriving or in decline might depend on the cable news network you watch.
The latest poll from The Economist and YouGov finds that 43 percent of Americans have been hearing mostly negative stories about the economy, while 11 percent say they’ve heard mostly positive stories. About one-third (34%) have heard equally positive and negative news stories.
Whether you’re hearing positive or negative coverage likely depends on which cable news network you’re watching.
Among those who say they watch CNN the most, about half (51%) say they are hearing mostly negative news stories about the economy. Over on Fox, it’s a different story: 45 percent of these viewers say they’re seeing coverage that’s equally positive and negative, while 23 percent say they’re seeing mostly positive coverage.
Those who don’t watch any cable news networks tend to say they’ve heard mostly negative (46%) news coverage about the economy, while about one-fifth (19%) haven’t heard much news about the economy at all.
See full topline and table results from this week’s Economist/YouGov survey.
Methodology: The Economist survey was conducted by YouGov using a nationally representative sample of 1,500 U.S. adult citizens interviewed online between September 6 - 8, 2020. This sample was weighted according to gender, age, race, and education based on the American Community Survey, conducted by the US Bureau of the Census, as well as 2016 Presidential vote, registration status, geographic region, and news interest. Respondents were selected from YouGov’s opt-in panel to be representative of all US citizens. The margin of error is approximately 3.4% for the overall sample.
