ABC News and The Washington Post ignored or downplayed their own poll finding that a growing numbers of Democrats, adults, and independents now find the southern border to be at a crisis situation. ABC hasn’t reported on the poll at all. The Post on Wednesday buried the story, relegating it to page A-7 in the print edition.
The ABC News/Washington Post survey found this big result: “More than a third of Americans say that illegal immigration at the U.S.-Mexico border is at a ‘crisis,’ up 11 percentage points since January as Democrats have grown sharply more concerned about the issue...”
Writers Emily Guskin and David Nakamura noted:
The poll, conducted by cellular and landline telephone between April 22 and 25, finds that 35 percent of Americans believe the situation is a crisis, up from 24 percent in January. While that figure included a modest increase among Republicans and independents, the percentage of Democrats who agree jumped from 7 percent to 24 percent, nearly a quarter of the party.
CBS and NBC have also ignored the poll, thus meaning all three network newscasts skipped the bad news for elected Democrats. However, Guskin and Nakamura explained, “The shifting views have altered the political calculus for Democrats, including the 20 candidates already in the race for the party’s presidential nomination, who have sought to challenge Trump’s hard-line rhetoric on immigration.”
Fox Business’s Evening Edit, unlike the networks, covered the story. Host Liz MacDonald explained:
We're always tracking the polls and what voters are thinking about this issue. Look at this Washington post ABC poll. More than a third of Americans say that illegal immigration at the border is at a crisis, level. That's up 11 percentage points since January. And then percentage of Democrats who agree with that, it jumps seven percentage points to, now a quarter of Democrats say it’s a crisis.
