Three out of every four Americans believe the media has given too much coverage to Donald Trump, a new survey from the Pew Research Center says.
Asked how news organizations have been covering the presidential candidates, 75% of respondents said too much coverage had been given to Trump. Only 4% said that the reality television star had been given too little.
The finding comes two weeks after a New York Times study found that Trump had earned close to $2 billion worth of free media attention during the 2016 campaign, eclipsing the total value of media attention given to all of his Republican competitors combined.
Taken together, the surveys provide hard evidence for what most Americans -- and the other Republican candidates -- already know: Trump has been given a vastly disproportional amount of media coverage.
Related: Even John Oliver enjoys a Drumpf bump
Such findings have fueled a robust debate among political observers and media analysts over the media's role in Trump's stunning political rise. Even President Obama, earlier this week, faulted the media for contributing to Trump's rise.
Those who believe the media is to blame for Trump's success, like USC Annenberg professor Ev Boyle, point to the overwhelming quantity of coverage. Those who take a more nuanced view, such as Politico's Jack Shafer and New York Magazine's Frank Rich, note that the majority of that coverage has been negative.
Related: How the media missed Trump
"Instead of trying to create Donald Trump, the media seem to have almost unified in an attempt to destroy him," Shafer wrote earlier this month.
There is no disagreement, however, that Trump has been the dominant story of the 2016 presidential cycle.
Meanwhile, a majority of those surveyed by Pew (54%) believe that Senator Ted Cruz has received just the right amount of coverage, and 57% believe that Governor John Kasich has received too little.
