CBS This Morning on Tuesday highlighted a recent Pew Research poll that "says politics is now making the Internet very unfriendly....nine percent of social networking users say they've un-friend...or blocked someone whose politics they disagree with." But the morning show failed to mention that the poll explained that "liberals are the most likely...to block, unfriend, or hide."
During her news brief, anchor Erica Hill noted how the left-leaning Daily Beast website reported on the blocking phenomenon. After citing the nine percent figure, Hill added, "Can't we just have a discussion anymore?" It is the left, however, that seems less likely to have that discussion, as the Monday poll found. Researchers Lee Rainie and Aaron Smith noted that "28% of liberals have blocked, unfriended, or hidden someone on SNS [social networking sites]...compared with 16% of conservatives and 14% of moderates."
A graph included with their findings outlined that 16% of liberals had "blocked, unfriended, or hidden someone...because they posted something [they] disagreed with." This is twice the 8% figure for conservatives. The bar graph also revealed that 11% of liberals "blocked, unfriended, or hidden someone...because they disagreed with something [they] posted," compared to just 4% for conservatives.
The transcript of Erica Hill's news brief from Tuesday's CBS This Morning, which aired 14 minutes into the 8 am Eastern hour:
ERICA HILL (voice-over): 'The Daily Beast' website says politics is now making the Internet very unfriendly. According to a new poll, nine percent of social networking users say they've un-friend- or de-friended, depending on how you like to say it- or blocked someone whose politics they disagree with. Can't we just have a discussion anymore?
