Poll: Donald Trump is more unfair to the media than the media is to him

When President-elect Donald Trump rails against the “dishonest” media, roughly half of Americans agree with his premise — that the press treats him unfairly. But even more people think Trump is unfair to the media. Those are among the results of a new Washington Post-ABC News poll, which showed that 47 percent of Americans generally view media coverage of Trump as unfair; 49 percent say coverage is fair (plus-2) but the poll's margin of error is 3.5 points. Call it an even split. Public opinion is clearer on Trump's treatment of the media: 57 percent characterize it as unfair, and just 38 percent call it fair. That's a 19-point gap.

So why, you might ask, does Trump keep up a fight in which he looks like the more flagrant offender? It appears that his anti-media screeds do more damage to his own reputation than to his target's. The answer could have something to do with the way public opinion breaks down along demographic lines. In short, Trump's attacks on the media overwhelmingly bother people who, generally speaking, are not likely to support him, anyway. At the same time, they are red meat for his base.