Roger Yu

USA TODAY

Americans believe the media is doing a poorer job covering the 2016 presidential candidates fairly than in past elections, according to a survey released Thursday.

Less than four in 10 Americans, 37%, describe the media’s coverage of the main presidential candidates this year as "fair,” says the survey, conducted by Pew Research Center. That’s down from 46% in 2012 and 60% in 2008.

The decline is largely due to Democrats’ dissatisfaction. “It comes predominantly from Democrats’ unease of how the media is covering the candidates,” Jeffrey Gottfried, senior researcher at Pew, said in an interview.

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The percentage of Americans who characterized the media's coverage of the Republican nominee, Donald Trump, as "too easy" totaled 27%. That is higher than 20% for 2012 Republican candidate Mitt Romney, and 15% for John McCain, the Republican standard bearer in 2008.

More than four out of 10 Democrats, 43%, say the media is too easy on Trump. Only 27% of them said the same about Romney in 2012.

Meanwhile, 61% of Republicans said the media is too easy on Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton, relatively unchanged from four years ago, when 59% of them said the same about President Obama.

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Three out of ten Democrats said the media is too tough on Clinton. Only about a quarter, 24%, of Democrats said the same for Obama in 2012.

Nearly half of Republicans, 46%, said the media is too tough on Trump, largely unchanged from the view of Romney coverage four years ago.

The survey was based on responses from 1,000 adults who were queried earlier this month.