A Rasmussen poll released on Tuesday regarding the Department of Justice’s targeting of Fox News reporter James Rosen and the Associated Press shows that a plurality of Americans believe that the DOJ was attempting to intimidate the media. 43 percent of respondents said they believed that the investigation of Rosen was “primarily an attempt to intimidate the media,” as opposed to 34 percent who said it was “primarily out of concern for national security.”
No doubt those numbers play a role in the American people’s newfound skepticism of government. A wide majority of Americans – 56 percent – said they see the government as a threat to individual rights, while only 30 percent see the federal government as a protector of individual rights. Overall, 70 percent of Americans say they have followed reports about the DOJ either very or somewhat closely.
Ben Shapiro is Editor-At-Large of Breitbart News and author of the New York Times bestseller “Bullies: How the Left’s Culture of Fear and Intimidation Silences America” (Threshold Editions, January 8, 2013).