Pew typically does good work. I don't know the sampling methodology here, but it's most likely a reasonable one.
We must consider a few things when looking at these poll results however. First, the ideology of journalists does not necessarily cause ideological output. In other words, a great deal of uncertainty surrounds the causal relationship between the ideology of journalists and the overall ideological impression left by newspapers. This uncertainty partly stems from operational problems -- how do we measure newspaper "liberalism" properly, for one -- and the other is structural -- does the business of running newspapers bias them toward liberalism or conservatism? Does the journalist/editor/business manager/publisher relationship allow for biased output?
This leads to the second consideration mentioned by Airhead. That is, editors and publishers determine newspaper content. Where is the poll measuring their ideologies? Iyengar and Kinder (1987) performed a complex series of experiments designed to measure the impact of television coverage with intentionally liberal or conservative bias on viewers. They concluded that the ideological slant of news rarely sways personal opinion, but the issues that receive a great deal of media attention become important to viewers while those that receive little attention lose viewer credibility. Consequently, issues central to the media become issues central to voters in evaluating presidents and presidential policies. We see this at work now as, I believe, a recent Pew survey found that voters now consider Iraq more important to the November elections than the economy. Given the ceaseless coverage of Iraq in the news and the relatively smaller coverage paid to the economy, does this come as any surprise?
Editors and publishers determine which news stories to run and on what subjects. If the media primes the public on the importance of particular issues, then their decisions probably disproportionately impact public opinion compared to journalists. And if profit margins increasingly determine the content of mass media, where does that leave us? Is that liberalism? Conservatism? Moderation?
Just some thoughts.
-- Todd/Leviathn
