Nearly 3 in 10 say Fox News too tough on Obama

[April 23, 2009]  NEW YORK (AP) -- Nearly three in 10 Americans say Fox News Channel has been too critical of President Barack Obama.

Pollsters for the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press found a partisan divide. Forty-four percent of Democrats say Fox has been too tough on Obama, while 18 percent of Republicans said that.

Either way, Fox has a winning formula: Fox News has solidified its hold on first place in the ratings since Obama took office, with Bill O'Reilly and Glenn Back's shows doing particularly well.

Although MSNBC has positioned itself as a left-leaning network in prime time and CNN says it tries to be nonpartisan, an identical 16 percent of Americans each found those networks too easy on the new president.

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Pew questioned 1,000 adults over the past weekend. The margin of error is plus or minus 3.5 percentage points.

[Associated Press]

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