http://people-press.org/reports/display.php3?PageID=830http://people-press.org/reports/display.php3?PageID=830http://people-press.org/reports/display.php3?ReportID=214Politics and Ideology
Commentary: A Crisis of Confidence
By Bill Kovach, Tom Rosenstiel and Amy Mitchell
<snip>The findings on politics also point to trends worth watching. Journalists tend to be split over whether the press has become too timid and also too easy on Bush--and the split is between national journalists and local. The national journalists tend to feel the press has been insufficiently critical of Bush. National journalists also are the more likely to describe themselves as personally liberal.
But this does not mean that journalists want to abandon the model of the independent press. Across the board, news people disapprove of news organizations having a decidedly ideologically point of view. Even among Internet journalists, often thought of as writing with more edge, three-quarters do not favor moving toward this more ideological, more European model of journalism.
The fact that journalists are more likely to see a conservative tilt in the news than a liberal one invites various explanations. It could be a sign of liberal bias. It also could be a natural response by journalists tired of people producing partisan journalism on the right positioning themselves as the counterbalance to a mainstream press they characterize as left wing. There will be no settling of that. <snip>
But what does liberal mean to journalists? We would be reluctant to infer too much here. The survey includes just four questions probing journalists' political attitudes, yet the answers to these questions suggest journalists have in mind something other than a classic big government liberalism and something more along the lines of libertarianism. More journalists said they think it is more important for people to be free to pursue their goals without government interference than it is for government to ensure that no one is in need. This libertarian strain is particularly strong among local journalists, who are also more likely to describe themselves as moderate. <snip>
http://www.npr.org/features/columns/column.php?columnId=2781901NPR Ombudsman responds to Pew Study: Journalists and Liberal Bias
Web Extra June 2, 2004 --<snip>Details of the study can be found at the Pew Web site (See link in Web Resources below). It surveyed 547 journalists in broadcasting and print. It also looks at attitudes comparing journalists who work in local newsrooms and those who work for national media. The survey replicated a similar study done in 1995.<snip>
First, the poll never asks exactly how personal political attitudes impact on the ability of journalists to do their job. In that sense, I think the poll may be a disservice. It implies -- but never explains how or if bias has an impact on journalism. The poll simply assumes -- as conservatives constantly point out -- that bias makes its way into the journalism.<snip>
The poll also points out the increasing concerns of journalists who see their ability to do their jobs in a professional way constantly undermined by encroaching commercialism.<snip>
I hope that Pew -- a highly respected polling organization -- would try again. A better poll would be to look more deeply into how journalistic checks and balances work: Do editors find that they are dealing with bias more than they used to? Do reporters and editors sense more or less pressure to deal with the campaigns in a certain way than they did in 2000? How does commercialism impact on the quality of reporting? Where does that pressure come from? Self-censorship or managerial fiat? Do readers, viewers and listeners sense a reticence on the part of journalists to go after the story in a post-Sept. 11 political environment? Are our European colleagues correct when they say that the American media has been cowed? (A British politician recently remarked that it wasn't necessary to muzzle Fleet Street: "You don't have to muzzle sheep.")<snip>
Listeners can contact me at 202-513-3245 or at
[email protected].
Jeffrey Dvorkin NPR Ombudsman
MY COMMENT: Jeffrey Dvorkin (NPR Ombudsman) gives too much respect to this poll - just from the math one should note that this is a stratified poll - without replacement - where the stratification looks reasonable, but with so small a sample and with Interviews completed with only 67% of the selected news media respondents who still held their position (12% could not be reached in order to complete an interview and 21% refused to participate in the survey) this has an unkown bias - in addition to a Margin of error (which is not published) that I'd estimate as at least plus or minus 6%. Add to this to the fact the folks used the term "liberal" but defined themselves more as into libertarianism.
As Fair found out, folks are "centerist" but the news is biased by management.
http://www.fair.org/reports/journalist-survey.html Q#22. On social issues, how would you characterize your political orientation? Q#23. On economic issues, how would you characterize your political orientation?
Left 30% ...............Left 11%
Center 57% ............center 64%
Right 9% ..............Right 19%
Other 5% ..............Other 5%
And the real bias comes via management -
http://www.fair.org/reports/ff2001.html http://www.fair.org/reports/ff2000.html In a 2000 Pew Center for the People & the Press poll of 287 reporters, editors and news executives, about one-third of respondents said that news that would "hurt the financial interests" of the media organization or an advertiser goes unreported. Forty-one percent said they themselves have avoided stories, or softened their tone, to benefit their media company's interests. Among investigative reporters, a majority (61 percent) thought that corporate owners exert at least a fair amount of influence on news decisions.
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