Do liberals really dominate the news outlets?

[Ripsnort]

..looks like it.

Pew Survey Finds Moderates, Liberals Dominate News Outlets  
Aya Kawano  
 
 


By E&P Staff

Published: May 23, 2004 4:00 PM EST

NEW YORK Those convinced that liberals make up a disproportionate share of newsroom workers have long relied on Pew Research Center surveys to confirm this view, and they will not be disappointed by the results of Pew's latest study released today.

While most of the journalists, like many Americans, describe themselves as "moderate," a far higher number are "liberal" than in the general population.

At national organizations (which includes print, TV and radio), the numbers break down like this: 34% liberal, 7% conservative. At local outlets: 23% liberal, 12% conservative. At Web sites: 27% call themselves liberals, 13% conservatives.

This contrasts with the self-assessment of the general public: 20% liberal, 33% conservative.

The survey of 547 media professionals, completed this spring, is part of an important study released today by The Project for Excellence in Journalism and The Committee of Concerned Journalists, which mainly concerns more general issues related to newsrooms (an E&P summary will appear Monday).

While it's important to remember that most journalists in this survey continue to call themselves moderate, the ranks of self-described liberals have grown in recent years, according to Pew. For example, since 1995, Pew found at national outlets that the liberal segment has climbed from 22% to 34% while conservatives have only inched up from 5% to 7%.

The survey also revealed what some are sure to label a "values" gap. According to Pew, about 60% of the general public believes it is necessary to believe in God to be a truly moral person. The new survey finds that less than 15% of those who work at news outlets believe that. About half the general public believes homosexuality should be accepted by society -- but about 80% of journalists feel that way.

When the question of which news organizations actually tilted left or right, there was one clear candidate: Fox News. Fully 69% of national journalists, and 42% of those at the local level, called Fox News "especially conservative." Next up was The New York Times, which about one in five labeled "especially liberal."

Not surprisingly, views of how the press has treated President Bush break down along partisan lines. More than two out of three liberals feel the press has not been tough enough on Bush, while half the conservatives feel the media has been too tough.

Still, a little over half of national journalists (53%) give national media coverage of the administration an A or B rating.

While the sample of 547 interviewees is not large, Pew says that this selection represents "a cross-section of news organizations and of the people working at all levels of those organizations." Newspapers were identified and circulation ranked using the 2003 Editor & Publisher International Year Book.

In an essay accompanying the survey, the directors of the sponsoring groups -- Bill Kovach, Tom Rosenstiel and Amy Mitchell --declare that broad conclusions about the political findings should be tempered by analyzing some of the details in the findings. For example, they identify strong "libertarian" leanings among journalists, including doubts about the role of "big government."

Source (Slow loading): http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1000517184

[AKIron]

Just because they're liberal doesn't mean they can't be objective, right?

[vorticon]

complaining about it here aint gonna change anything...perhaps the effect is simply because conservatives simply arnet interested in that line of work?

[Sandman]

Think I'll wait for a ruling from DMF.

He's the stats god.

[stiehl]

Are you trying to say that 60% of the general population are morons??

[storch]

I think you have misread that.  he's saying that 40% are.  They are looking for a drum major BTW.

[Ripsnort]

Originally posted by storch
I think you have misread that.  he's saying that 40% are.  They are looking for a drum major BTW.

[lazs2]

as a rule conservatives are not attracted to artistic endeavers.

artists are critics not doers.

I have not given the news media more than a cursory glance in a decade.   when something major happens I watch a mix of fox and cnn in order to get both sides.  watching only one is either boring in the case of the former or disgusting and frustrating in the case of the latter.

lazs

[Airhead]

Invididual reporters tend to be liberal, no doubt. It's a "searching for truth" thingie and an idealism born of youth. However, the organizations reporters work for tend to be conservative because they're generally a chain and are profit-driven, as they have to be.

Where that conflicts is when a story might affect the bottom line. Years ago I worked for a small daily paper and we broke a story about a local car dealership rolling back the odometers on used cars.

We did a great story, presented it to the Editor, he showed it to the GM (actually publisher) who called the owner of the car lot as a courtesy.  The owner of the car lot said "run it if you want, but that double page full color ad we run every Sunday will get canceled."

Story never ran because of economic  considerations.  I was pissed but understood the GM was running a business, we were a chain and he had to answer to a higher authority if we didn't make money.

I quit shortly thereafter but it had nothing to do with being censored- it had to do with the need to make more money, just like them.  It's all about the bucks, ultimately. For everything.

[AKIron]

Unfortunately, searching for truth doesn't guarantee finding it. Especially if you're looking for it with preconceived ideas of what it will be when you find it.

[Airhead]

Originally posted by AKIron
Unfortunately, searching for truth doesn't guarantee finding it. Especially if you're looking for it with preconceived ideas of what it will be when you find it.

Yup. Which version of "the truth" do you want?

[AKIron]

Originally posted by Airhead
Yup. Which version of "the truth" do you want?

I want the one where America stays strong and our enemies continue to fear us.

[stiehl]

I want the one where America is what America could/should be.
Liberty, equality, justice.... all that corny stuff.
HHHMMmm...wonder why I have such a cynical outlook on life.

[strk]

sure the media is liberal.  That is why we are always seeing dead Iraqi civilians all the time, and flag draped coffins coming back from Iraq, and why all we see is are stories about the unemployed and the poor and about how the administration is doing so poorly.

/sarcasm



"In that regard, the poll finds that many journalists _ especially those in the national media _ believe that the press has not been critical enough of President Bush. Majorities of print and broadcast journalists at national news organizations believe the press has been insufficiently critical of the administration. Many local print journalists concur. This is a minority opinion only among local news executives and broadcast journalists. While the press gives itself about the same overall grade for its coverage of George W. Bush as it did nine years ago for its coverage of Bill Clinton (B- among national journalists, C+ from local journalists), the criticism in 1995 was that the press was focusing too much on Clinton's problems, and too little on his achievements."




http://people-press.org/reports/display.php3?PageID=825

[Silat]

Try this:
http://www.liberalslant.com/mediaownership.htm