Pale Rider said:
Here's where you fall flat on your face mj. You see I don't "think" there's main stream liberal bias in the news, I "know" there's liberal bias. I know it, you know it, the man in the moon knows it.
Like I said, I don't expect you to "admit" it. You're a liberal, and liberals will argue the most blatant lies right into the dirt, for what appears to be just the sake of the arguement.
Well I'll leave you to argue with rwa, because I've made my point abundantly clear, and there's no need to read anymore of your bullshit about it.
You know, in addition to his rustic charm, Pale Rider is quite correct when he claims in his uniquely straightforward manner that there is a liberal bias in the media (wow.... don't I sound like Willaim F. Buckley when I talk like that?). It is not an opinion, it is a fact, one that has been studied and measured, with hard numbers to back it up....
The most recent ASNE (American Association of Newspaper Editors ) study surveyed 1,037 newspaper reporters found 61 percent identified themselves as/leaning "liberal/Democratic" compared to only 15 percent who identified themselves as/leaning "conservative/Republican."
If you take the last election as an indication, then Americans are about half left of the political spectrum, and half are to the right, with slightly more to the right.
Lichter and Rothman's survey of journalists discovered that "Fifty-four percent placed themselves to the left of center, compared to only 19 percent who chose the right side of the spectrum."
"Fifty-six percent said the people they worked with were mostly on the left, and only 8 percent on the right — a margin of seven-to-one."
Only one percent strongly agreed that environmental problems were ovestated, while a majority of 54 percent strongly disagreed.
90 percent favored abortion.
80 percent supported "strong affirmative action for blacks."
54 percent did not regard adultery as wrong, compared to only 15 percent who regarded it as wrong.
Clearly this does not reflect a population of people who would consider themselves conservative or right of center. In fact, this population of people is not even representative of the Americans as a whole.
44 percent of journalists identified themselves as Democrats, compared to only 16 percent who tagged themselves as Republican.
Journalists are 5 to 10 percentage points more likely to be Democrats than the general population and 10 to 15 points less likely to be Republicans
Again, journalists' political affiliations do not indicate any conservative political leanings, instead a leaning toward liberal political philosophy.
Self-identified liberals outnumbered conservatives in the newsroom by more than three-to-one, 55 to 17 percent. This compares to only one-fourth of the public (23 percent) that identified themselves as liberal.
84 percent of reporters and editors supported a so-called "nuclear freeze" to ban all future nuclear missile deployment; 80 percent were against increased defense spending; and 76 percent opposed aid to the Nicaraguan Contras.
82 percent of reporters and editors favored allowing women to have abortions; 81 percent backed affirmative action; and 78 percent wanted stricter gun control.
By a margin of two-to-one, reporters had a negative view of then-President Ronald Reagan and voted, by the same margin, for Walter Mondale in 1984
Nearly all of the media elite (97 percent) agreed that “it is a woman’s right to decide whether or not to have an abortion,” and five out of six (84 percent) agreed strongly.
Three out of four journalists (73 percent) agreed that “homosexuality is as acceptable a lifestyle as heterosexuality,” and 40 percent agreed strongly.
Seven out of ten journalists (71 percent) agreed that “government should work to ensure that everyone has a job,” and 30 percent said they strongly agreed with that statement.
Three-fourths (75 percent) agreed that “government should work to reduce the income gap between the rich and the poor,” and more than a third (34 percent) strongly agreed.
Relatively few journalists (39 percent) agreed that “less government regulation of business would be good for the economy,” and just five percent strongly agreed with this sentiment.
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Again ... newspaper reporters and journalists as a population are more liberal than conservative and are definitely more liberal than the American public in general.
So, yes Virginia there really IS a liberal bias in the media!!!!!!!!
P.S. In addition the studies also indicate a HISTORICAL liberalism in the media which stretches back at least 40 years, long before Fox News came along. So Pale Rider is only half correct in saying there IS a liberal bias in the media, he didn't go far enough, there not only IS a liberal bias,
there also has been a liberal bias in the media for the past 2 generations or longer.
http://www.mediaresearch.org/biasbasics/welcome.asp#how
