Zogby Poll: Voters Believe Media Bias is Very Real

[Toad]

Nearly two-thirds of those online respondents who detected bias in the media (64%) said the media leans left, while slightly more than a quarter of respondents (28%) said they see a conservative bias on their TV sets and in their column inches.

Zogby Poll: Voters Believe Media Bias is Very Real

This issue has been debated here in the OC now and again.

Here's the meaty part:

While 97% of Republicans surveyed said the media are liberal, two-thirds of political independents feel the same, but fewer than one in four independents (23%) said they saw a conservative bias. Democrats, while much more likely to perceive a conservative bias than other groups, were not nearly as sure the media was against them as were the Republicans. While Republicans were unified in their perception of a left-wing media, just two-thirds of Democrats were certain the media skewed right – and 17% said the bias favored the left.


The Zogby Interactive survey of 1,757 likely voters nationwide was conducted Feb. 20-26, 2007, and has a margin of error of +/- 2.4 percentage points

So just about all the Reps think the media skews left, ~66% of the Dems say it skews right BUT 17% of the Dems say it skews left.

I admit I personally think it skews left. I doubt this poll will change any opinions. The surprising part for me was the 17% of Dems being honest. .

[Dago]

Originally posted by Toad
The surprising part for me was the 17% of Dems being honest. .

The surprising part should be that 17% of the democrats were smart enough to understand what "bias" meant.  

[Toad]

Oh, they know that bias means you don't agree with them .

[Airscrew]

Originally posted by Toad
The surprising part for me was the 17% of Dems being honest. .

some of them are probably not true democrats.  I am a registered Democrat since 1978, I voted Reagan, Bush, Perot, Dole, and Bush.  local elections Mostly republicans, couple of independents and couple of democrats.   Because I was voting absentee I would call home and talk to my mom and dad to get there opinions on the locals like JP and constables and vote for whatever they wanted, didnt effect me any I didnt live there.   I'm just to lazy to go the county and fix my party registration besides I like to think I screw up their numbers...

[oboe]

It tells me nothing to know whether Democrats or Republicans perceive a media bias.   Its no surprise to me that Republicans are unified in their thinking, and that there is a wide range of opinion among Democrats.   I think that situation is true no matter what the question.

I'd rather have more information on what the independents percieve.

[Toad]

Let me help you with that then, with a repeat from the very first post.

While 97% of Republicans surveyed said the media are liberal, two-thirds of political independents feel the same, but fewer than one in four independents (23%) said they saw a conservative bias.

That would be 66% of independents think the media are liberal and less than 25% see a conservative bias.

You must have missed that I guess.

[Yeager]

All one has to do is watch half an hour of CNN then half an hour of Fox and the bias jumps out like a bolt of lightening.  In this age one has to think clearly detached from the rhetoric.

[Rino]

Originally posted by Toad
Let me help you with that then, with a repeat from the very first post.



That would be 66% of independents think the media are liberal and less than 25% see a conservative bias.

You must have missed that I guess.

     Come on Toad, it doesn't pass the agenda filter

[Toad]

Apparently it didn't pass the read for content filter!

[namvet]

Conservatism preys on the unedcated.

[Airscrew]

Originally posted by namvet
Politics preys on the unedcated and takes advantage of the ignorant.

 I fixed it for ya

[DiabloTX]

LOL Airscrew

[kamilyun]

How do you quantify "skew"?

Not being a smartarse, but how far in % does a news outlet skew from the "truth"?

I think it would be very interesting if we had #'s from a Clinton era polling or a future Democrat president's term.  The flavor of the news could change depending who's in control of Congress and/or the Executive branch.

[namvet]

Originally posted by Airscrew
 I fixed it for ya

[Guppy35]

I remember reading "Breach of Faith" back in about 1974 and it talked about the efforts by Nixon, Agnew and company to preach the notion of the left wing media elite.  They were less successful then the crowd today.

And I'll give the rep machine credit for using it well to muffle anything that doesn't fit thier agenda.

It's all part of the game and the Reps are far better infighters then the Dems.

Scream 'Liberal agenda" and anything said is immediately nullified.  

The Dem effort in return is to point to FOX news etc as the Rep agenda mouth piece.

It does imply that folks are too dumb to think for themselves however which is too bad.

We'll tell you where to read, what to watch and where the 'truth' is, as long as it fits our agenda.

The problem is, I don't believe either side gives a damn about most of us.  They see it as a game of manipulating opinion for their own ends, not the welfare of the people they are supposed to represent.

Ed Murrow in his 1958 speech in Chicago had it right when he expressed his concerns about marketing, ratings, money dictating the news, not the story itself.