“Donald Trump’s on the playground, the media’s on the playground, and they’re all fighting for that one little swing.”<br />Gary Abernathy, 61, the editor and publisher of The Times-Gazette in Hillsboro, Ohio, which endorsed Mr. Trump for president, said part of the problem with the mainstream media’s coverage of Mr. Trump was<br />that reporters at major newspapers ”don’t really get other parts of the country.”<br />“I do think it’s a failure to understand, and also a failure to respect the opinions of Trump voters,” he said.<br />“I think that was a bit much,” said Mark Huizingh, 67, a Trump supporter<br />and furniture store owner in Grand Rapids, Mich. “That was a little too strong.”<br />Mr. Trump’s presidency has exacerbated already deep ideological divisions in the country,<br />and Americans on one end of the political spectrum increasingly find themselves unable even to look their counterparts in the eye.<br />(Half of the respondents to the Quinnipiac poll said they disapproved of the media’s coverage of Mr.<br />“I think it’s right and wrong,” Ted Friedman, 59, a part-time furniture upholsterer in Grand Rapids, said about likening the media to the enemy.<br />“I think what we’re seeing in the mainstream — we’re talking CNN, Fox and so forth — I think we’re seeing the kids are on the playground,” he said.<br />The political divide, however, is stark: Among Democrats, 86 percent said they trusted the media<br />more to tell the truth, while 78 percent of Republicans said they trusted Mr. Trump more.<br />Fifty-two percent said they trusted the media more to tell the truth about important<br />issues, while 37 percent said they trusted Mr. Trump more to do so.
