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Original Message
"Pew Center Study finds media IS liberal"
Posted by PagongRatEater on 05-24-04 at 10:16 AM
OK, so I like provocative articles. The highlights are mine. I think that it is very interesting to note how disimilar the media's political leanings and personal values contrast so starkly with the rest of Americs. I would hazard a guess that the many of the so-called moderates are left-leaning and only "moderate" in the context of the media. Much more telling is how few of the media is conservative(and they all work at FOX ).

Draw your own conclusions and most importantly, keep it civil peeps!


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."


Table of contents
Messages in this discussion
"media workers"
Posted by cqvenus on 05-24-04 at 10:18 AM

media workers may be liberal in their personal belief systems, but it doesn't mean what comes out is necessarily liberal. remember who pays the bills.

~ cq

"RE: media workers"
Posted by PagongRatEater on 05-24-04 at 10:30 AM
As we've seen time and again on this board, how we view the world is colored by our own perceptions. I think that many of the broadcasters attempt what they believe to be objective reporting, but if they all begin the process from a liberal point of view they are going to view things through that lens.

"RE: media workers"
Posted by Lisapooh on 05-24-04 at 10:39 AM
but PRE, in our shared media outlet, I can think of one highly regarded local news anchor that was reprimanded for his appearance(s) at conservative fundraisers.

I worked in a television newsroom in another city for over two years. There was no liberal bias there - quite the opposite. And the owners were decidely conservative and onsite.

I do think a lot of news directors and reporters are fairly liberal though - it's not a particularly lucrative career - the starting pay for the industry makes teachers look like Rockefellers. If they wanted to pursue a more Republican goal of affluence, they'd be on another career path. Maybe some conservatives could take one for the team and be willing to work for peanuts for the majority of their career and fix the bias?

"*applause*"
Posted by cqvenus on 05-24-04 at 10:43 AM

what poho said.

especially:

Maybe some conservatives could take one for the team and be willing to work for peanuts for the majority of their career and fix the bias?

~ cq

"RE: media workers"
Posted by Captain_Savem on 05-24-04 at 11:09 AM


I agree with cq on this. I don't care if Joe Schmoe the reporter assigned to cover the opening of a new Krispy Kreme considers himself a liberal. What do those in positions of power (Rupert Murdoch) consider themselves? We don't need a cross-section of journalists, we need to ask the guys at the top.



The evolution continues...

"RE: Pew Center Study finds media IS liberal"
Posted by Esbea on 05-24-04 at 10:40 AM
"Pew Survey Finds Moderates, Liberals Dominate News Outlets
Aya Kawano "

I think the spacing is off on the name.......


AyaK awano

"RE: Pew Center Study finds media IS liberal"
Posted by PepeLePew13 on 05-24-04 at 12:19 PM
They forgot the "Le" before the name of the Centre as well.


"RE: Pew Center Study finds media IS liberal"
Posted by mistofleas on 05-24-04 at 07:01 PM
Personally I never listen to anything named Pew unless there's a Pepe Le in front of it.


--is just saying

"RE: Pew Center Study finds media IS liberal"
Posted by dabo on 05-24-04 at 10:50 AM
If I had nickel for every time I've heard or read about this mythical liberal news media, I'd be the Olsen twins.

SMILES ARE FREE

"RE: Pew Center Study finds media IS liberal"
Posted by PagongRatEater on 05-24-04 at 11:02 AM
If you were the Olsen Twins, I think I'd find a way to put our petty political differences aside.

"RE: Pew Center Study finds media IS liberal"
Posted by dabo on 05-24-04 at 11:20 AM
At least we can agree to disagree about things. So, ya gonna watch Dubya's address tonight? http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/5045174/ Three of the broadcast networks won't be carrying it (and the fourth has yet to announce whether it will pre-emp a couple of season finales for this), does this make them liberal?

SMILES ARE FREE

"RE: Pew Center Study finds media IS liberal"
Posted by TechNoir on 05-24-04 at 11:56 AM
Well I am. I wanna see the damage from the bike wreck.


© J Slice, who rocks
How bad is it when you have to take your physician with you on a bike ride?

"also"
Posted by cqvenus on 05-24-04 at 11:21 AM
... if you were the olsen twins, there'd be tons of websites with countdowns til your 18th bday.

~ cq

"RE: also"
Posted by Devious Weasel on 05-24-04 at 11:31 AM
Yeah, but doesn't that kind of defeat the point of it?

"RE: also"
Posted by dabo on 05-24-04 at 11:38 AM
Someone must be hoping they'll do a spread for Now Legal For Porn.
"Some Thoughts"
Posted by Devious Weasel on 05-24-04 at 11:37 AM
I’m going to ignore all the problems with asking people to self-assess their political position. Considering that there may be as many definitions of liberal, moderate, and conservative as there are people, asking people to self-assess without giving a context for that self-assessment seems foolish. (For example, the two questions they give with a context, belief in God and acceptance of homosexuality, would seem to indicate that the number of people who are actually liberal is probably higher than the number of people who self-assess as liberal.] But I digress.

There's some interesting things if you go to the report, then go to the poll numbers and look at the breakout. In addition to the distinctions between local and national outlets, there is a sharp difference between beliefs in the print media and the broadcast media. At the national level, 42% of respondents in the print media self-assess as liberal and only 23% of the respondents in the broadcast media self-assess as liberal. (This 23% is within the usual margin of error* of the number of people in the general public {20%} who self-assess as liberal.) At the local level, 30% of respondents in the print media self-assess as liberal and only 14% of the respondents in the broadcast media self-assess as liberal. (Although lower than the 20% of the general public, this is within the combined usual margin of error of the two figures {i.e. the usual margin of error on the 20% of the general public and the usual margin of error on the local broadcast media}.) In other words, broadcast journalists, the source of the news for most people, are about as liberal, if not less liberal, than the general public.

There’s another distinction in the numbers. As several posters have commented, if you look at executives, the people who sign the checks, only 16% at the national level and 11% at the local level self-assess as liberal. The national level number is within the combined usual margin of error with the general public number. However, the local level number is outside the usual margin of error, meaning that if the survey is valid, local level journalism executives are less liberal than the general public. (Unfortunately, they don’t break the executive marks out by print and broadcast. I imagine the distinction mentioned above would be at least the same here, meaning that more print executives self-assess as liberal than broadcast executives.)

While I agree that your inherent beliefs impact the work you do, I also don’t think it can be argued that the beliefs of your boss also impact the work you do. I’d go so far to say that this impact is probably far greater than the impact of your beliefs.

I couldn't find the actual margin of error on this study, so I used the usual margin of error on most polls these days of plus or minus 3%.

"RE: Some Thoughts"
Posted by landruajm on 05-24-04 at 11:43 AM
How dare you interject logic and reason into a discussion like this one? I mean, you might actually mess up the conservatives' theory that if they keep screaming that the media are liberal, it'll become a fact, regardless of, uhm, facts. And logic. And reason.

The margin of error is that it's the Pew Center that's the source.

"RE: Some Thoughts"
Posted by Captain_Savem on 05-24-04 at 11:44 AM


Yeah, what DWeasel said.



The evolution continues...

"RE: Some Thoughts"
Posted by PagongRatEater on 05-24-04 at 12:06 PM
LAST EDITED ON 05-24-04 AT 12:07 PM (EST)

Some interesting points, I agree that the "self-assesment" is definitely misleading and would certainly be heavily weighted toward moderate as most journalists would like to at least believe that they are non-biased. I also agree that local media tends to be more conservative than national media (to reflect the tastes of their audience more accurately). Print media is far more liberal than television media as shown by their beliefs on religion and homosexuality - which in all demographics and at all levels of the study are far outside of the beliefs of the general public.

However, I think that the implication (here and above) that the owners and executives are conservative is not borne out by the poll numbers. While 33% of Americans consider themselves conservative only 19% of Execs and 4% of Senior Execs consider themselves conseravtive. This is a whopping 11% on the local level. So no matter how you slice it, conservative viewpoints are underrepresented in the media. Perhaps there are some areas where it is less stark, but it is still not "fair and balanced".

I agree though that the biggest problem with this survey is the self-assesment of the media. I think that the individual issues point to a much more liberal media than the study seems to indicate. It would be VERY interesting if they had asked about political affiliations, electoral preferences and some other issue-based lines of questioning.

Thanks for the thoughtful response.

"RE: Some Thoughts"
Posted by Devious Weasel on 05-24-04 at 12:16 PM
I don't think you can draw the conclusion that the viewpoints are underrepresented. At best, I think you can draw the conclusion that there are fewer self-assessing conservatives in the media than there are in the general public. And at the executive level, there are also fewer self-assessing liberals in the media than there are in the general public.

My own philosophy is that these sorts of threads deserve serious responses. (Unless, of course, you want to do a complete threadjacking response. That is also acceptable.) I've done my share of quick sarcastic on-topic responses on political threads, and I've regretted it almost every time. A serious question (and yours was) deserves a serious response.

Nonetheless, props to my posse mate Landru.

"RE: Some Thoughts"
Posted by DSpunk on 05-24-04 at 12:53 PM
I think the real issue is the fact that Americans have been duped into thinking that "conservative" and "liberal" categories are enough to adequately break down a society's politics. Our two-party system is severely flawed, folks, and trying to pin each other down as either conservative or liberals does nothing to help us find real solutions to real problems...

let alone the anti-category, "centrist". Ugh.

"RE: Some Thoughts"
Posted by RudyRules on 05-25-04 at 00:17 AM
There is only one solution people:


Flight plan by RollDdice