【中国观察2020年12月17日讯】今年11月18日至29日期间，美国无党派民调和智库机构“皮尤研究中心”（Pew Research Center）对12,648名美国成年人进行调查，询问他们对总统大选相关新闻的看法。
受访者来自该机构的“美国趋势小组”（American Trends Panel），他们被按照性别、种族、民族、党派归属和教育等类别进行了加权处理，以代表美国成年人口。
这份报告在周三（12月16日）公布。
报告说，“经历了病毒式的网络虚假消息泛滥的选举季后，十分之六美国人表示，捏造的新闻和信息对总统大选产生‘重大影响’，差不多同等数量的人对新闻媒体的报导也持同样看法。”
有72%的人说，他们至少看到了“一些”似乎完全是捏造的选举新闻，其中28%的人表示自己看了“很多”。
调查还发现，63%的美国人表示（主流）新闻媒体对竞选活动的报导，对总统选举产生重大影响。其中，71%的共和党人和56%的民主党人同意这个观点。
60%的人认为“捏造的新闻和信息意图误导公众”，对总统选举产生重大影响。其中，69%的共和党人和54%的民主党人同意这一观点。
48%的人认为，“社交媒体对其平台上有关选举内容的（审查）决策”对总统选举产生重大影响。其中，62%的共和党人和37%的民主党人同意这一观点。
32%的人表示，“竞选团队和其它团体发布的广告”对总统选举产生重大影响。其中，30%的共和党人和33%的民主党人同意这一观点。
几年来，美国总统川普（特朗普）一直批评主流媒体利用“假新闻”对他进行打压。在本次大选中，主流媒体仍对川普阵营报忧不报喜，甚至直接编造谎言抹黑。
例如，11月8日，CNN报导称第一夫人梅拉尼娅（Melania Trump）、川普的女婿库什纳（Jared Kushner）等核心圈子成员劝川普“接受选举失败”。
梅拉尼娅当天发推文辟谣，表示美国人应该得到一个公平的选举，要清点每一张合法的而不是非法的选票。她还呼吁以绝对透明的方式来保护美国的民主。
11月16日，《华盛顿邮报》等媒体报导，川普团队撤销了原来对选举官员侵犯共和党监票员的指控。报导称，这意味着宾州诉讼的核心内容撤销，川普团队转而针对“选民修改邮寄选票”方面的漏洞进行诉讼，这导致共和党人处于不利地位。《华邮》还引用一名民主党律师的话说，此举意味川普的诉讼不太可能改变选举结果。
川普对此发推文说，“《华盛顿邮报》忘了读诉状了！假新闻。监票员受到（不公）对待仍是诉状中的重要部分！”
川普法律团队律师珍娜·埃利斯（Jenna Ellis）也在11月9日的新闻发布会上批“假新闻一直在掩盖什么、拒绝报导什么。所有的假新闻都围绕着诉讼案的正当性做文章，并且试图将我们所做的非法化。”
英文大纪元获奖调查记者费舒华（Joshua Philipp）认为，在过去几年，新闻逐渐发生变化，正在变成宣传，脱离了它最初的使命——告诉人们发生了什么，为什么你应该关注它。
他说，现在很多记者在做的属于“新新闻业”。这种新闻业的目的不是为了告诉你发生了什么，而是为了实现一个特定的政治目标。所以，当人们去写新闻时，他们并不是在想如何告知公众，而是在思考如何根据他们的政治议程来告知公众。
A recently released survey shows that the 2020 U.S. presidential election has been plagued by fake news, with 72 percent of Americans saying they have seen "fabricated" news and more than 60 percent saying they believe such news has influenced the election.
Between Nov. 18 and 29 of this year, the Pew Research Center, a nonpartisan polling and think tank, surveyed 12,648 U.S. adults about their views on news related to the presidential election.
Respondents were drawn from the agency's American Trends Panel and were weighted by gender, race, ethnicity, party affiliation and education to represent the U.S. adult population.
The report was released on Wednesday (Dec. 16).
After an election season that saw a viral flood of online disinformation, six in 10 Americans say fabricated news and information had a 'significant impact' on the presidential election, and about the same number say the same about news media coverage," the report said. "
Seventy-two percent said they had seen at least "some" election news that appeared to be completely fabricated, with 28 percent saying they had seen "a lot.
The survey also found that 63 percent of Americans said the (mainstream) news media's coverage of the campaign had a significant impact on the presidential election. Of those, 71 percent of Republicans and 56 percent of Democrats agree with this view.
Sixty percent believe "fabricated news and information intended to mislead the public" has had a significant impact on the presidential election. Of those, 69 percent of Republicans and 54 percent of Democrats agree with this view.
Forty-eight percent believe that "social media's (censored) decisions about election content on their platforms" have a significant impact on the presidential election. Of those, 62% of Republicans and 37% of Democrats agree with this view.
Thirty-two percent said that "ads posted by campaigns and other groups" have a significant impact on the presidential election. Of those, 30 percent of Republicans and 33 percent of Democrats agree with this view.
For several years, President Trump has criticized the mainstream media for using "fake news" to suppress him. In this election, the mainstream media is still reporting on the Trump camp, and even directly making up lies to discredit it.
For example, on Nov. 8, CNN reported that First Lady Melania Trump, Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner and other members of his inner circle had advised Trump to "accept defeat".
Melania tweeted the same day to dispel the rumors, saying that Americans deserve a fair election and that every legal, not illegal, vote should be counted. She also called for absolute transparency to protect American democracy.
On Nov. 16, the Washington Post and other media outlets reported that the Trump team dropped the original charges against election officials for violating Republican poll watchers. This means that the core of the Pennsylvania lawsuit has been dropped and the Trump team is instead litigating loopholes in "voter-altered mail-in ballots," which puts Republicans at a disadvantage, the newspaper said. The WaPo also quoted a Democratic lawyer as saying that the move meant Trump's lawsuit was unlikely to change the outcome of the election.
In response, Trump tweeted, "The Washington Post forgot to read the brief! Fake news. The (unfair) treatment of poll watchers is still an important part of the complaint!"
Jenna Ellis, an attorney for Trump's legal team, also criticized the "fake news for covering up and refusing to report anything all along. All of the fake news has been built around the legitimacy of the lawsuit and trying to delegitimize what we're doing."
Joshua Philipp, an award-winning investigative reporter for the English-language Epoch Times, argues that over the past few years, news has gradually changed and is becoming propaganda, moving away from its original mission of telling people what's going on and why you should care about it.
What many journalists are doing now, he says, is the "new journalism. The purpose of this journalism is not to tell you what's going on, but to achieve a specific political goal. So when people go to write the news, they're not thinking about how to inform the public, they're thinking about how to inform the public based on their political agenda.