Trump supporters target 'pro-Hillary' journalists with The List

Donald Trump supporters are now putting journalists they believe are friendly to Democrat candidate Hillary Clinton on a list.

The news comes just days after some shouted the Nazi slogan "lügenpresse", meaning "lying press", to reporters at a rally.

Tweets picking out journalists began to appear on Monday (24 October). But there is no indication that the list is organised or being compiled by one particular person. The account @countrglobalist, which was one of the first to begin tweeting photos of journalists with red crosses over their pictures, has been suspended.

Accounts tweeting using the hashtag #TheList appear to be few. One tweet picks out CNN anchor Anderson Cooper for "misleading the American public by spreading lies and false information".

Trump's message that the media is part of an electoral system that is somehow "rigged" against him is resonating with Republicans.

A recent Reuters/Ipsos poll showed that about 70% of Republicans thought that if Hillary Clinton won the campaign that it would be because of vote rigging. As nearly a dozen sexual assault allegations against Trump have emerged over the past couple weeks, Trump has ramped up claims that the media is biased against him.

His statements even prompted Conservative pundit and Fox host Bill O'Rilley to accuse Trump of "whining".

In an interview media expert Dave D'Alessio, a professor of communications at the University of Connecticut, said that the media have become Trump's "whipping boy" for any failures on the part of his campaign.

"I don't trust anybody that says the media are biased because the very nature of bias is that it's a perception," D'Alessio said.

There's something called a hostile media effect. Basically whenever people are engaged in an issue — and there's no one more engaged than a presidential candidate — they see coverage as biased against their position, no matter what is it.

D'Alessio emphasised that modern charges of media bias in American elections reach back to Franklin D Roosevelt's campaign.

Even one of the founding fathers Thomas Jefferson complained about the media. "Jefferson was the fellow that wanted everyone to have a free press and then when he became president," said D'Alessio, "he wanted to shut down the newspapers."