THINKing

Is The Media’s Liberal Slip Showing?

I ran across an interesting poll from Rasmussen Reports concerning how Americans view media objectivity. According to the poll,

Just 17% of voters nationwide believe that most reporters try to offer unbiased coverage of election campaigns. A Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey found that four times as many—68%–believe most reporters try to help the candidate that they want to win.

As you would expect, Republicans have the least favorable view of media objectivity. 82 percent of Republicans believe the media are advocates rather than observers. Even Democrats (56 percent) and independents (69 percent) agreed with that view.

One of the most interesting findings, in my mind was this:

Voters have little doubt as to who is benefitting from the media coverage this year—Barack Obama. Fifty-four percent (54%) say Obama has gotten the best coverage so far. Twenty-two percent (22%) say McCain has received the most favorable coverage while 14% say that Hillary got the best treatment. At the other extreme, 43% say Clinton received the worst treatment from the media. Twenty-seven percent (27%) say the media was roughest on McCain and only 15% thought the media coverage was most unfair to Obama.

I have been looking for more recent figures on how journalists actually vote and with which party they are affiliated, but the latest I can find is from a 2004 study by the Media Research Center. That study found:

• More than half of the journalists surveyed (52%) said they voted for Democrat John Kerry in the 2004 presidential election, while fewer than one-fifth (19%) said they voted for Republican George W. Bush. The public chose Bush, 51 to 48 percent.

• When asked “generally speaking, do you consider yourself a Democrat, Republican, an Independent, or something else?” more than three times as many journalists (33%) said they were Democrats than said they were Republicans (10%).

• While about half of the journalists said they were “moderate,” 28 percent said they thought of themselves as liberals, compared to just 10 percent who said they were conservative.

• One out of eight journalists (13%) said they considered themselves “strongly liberal,” compared to just three percent who reported being “strongly conservative,” a four-to-one disparity.

What do you think? Is this view partially responsible for the loss of circulation by newspapers, and TV News drop in viewership?

Other Posts Of Interest

• Links – May 15, 2008
• Creativity 2011 – Week #42
• Creativity 2010 – Week #28
• Press Release Evolution
• Blogging Lesson #4 – Stay Focused