Spread it around: Media is socially liberal, but economically conservative

[joelogan]

A detailed survey of the attitudes of reporters was done in 1998. The results showed that the media was more liberal than the general public when it comes to social issues, but more conservative than the general public when it comes to economic issues.

Here are some quotes from an article based on this study from fair.org:

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Take the charge that journalists are anti-business. The recent survey asked them a simple question: Do "a few large companies" have "too much power"? Washington journalists were somewhat divided on the issue, with 57 percent answering yes and 43 percent saying no. That's more conservative than the American public, which responds overwhelmingly in the affirmative to this question-- by 77 percent to 18 percent in a Times Mirror poll.


Is the press corps hell-bent on "big government" solutions to health care problems? On the contrary, the general public is far more emphatic that it is Washington's responsibility to "guarantee medical care for all people who don't have health insurance." When Croteau posed this question to journalists, they were somewhat evenly split: 43 percent pro, 35 percent con. By contrast, the public supported federally guaranteed medical care for the uninsured by a 2-to-1 majority (64-29 percent) in a 1996 New York Times/CBS poll.

In a related question, Croteau asked journalists to prioritize economic issues for the President and Congress, including a proposal to "require that employers provide health insurance to employees." Only 32 percent of journalists chose that as one of the top few federal priorities-- compared to 47 percent of the public.

Nor do these journalists worry much about today's economy. A nationwide Gallup Poll in March found that 34 percent of the public rated economic conditions as "only fair" or "poor," while just 5 percent of Croteau's journalists shared that assessment. But then most of the journalists who filled out questionnaires declared annual household incomes of over $100,000 and almost a third declared incomes over $150,000. The median U.S. household income is roughly $36,000. "Raise taxes on the wealthy"? That's quite popular with the public. Not so with the well-to-do media professionals who filled out questionnaires. "Reform entitlements"? Journalists want to slow Social Security and Medicare. In contrast, the public is more concerned with protecting entitlements against cuts. "Free trade"? While the American public is more negative than positive in assessing the impact of the NAFTA trade deal on the U.S., only 8 percent of the surveyed journalists judged NAFTA's impact as negative; 65 percent judged it positive.
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more here:
http://www.fair.org/articles/liberal-media.html

[trotsky]

1. Reporters are liberal, editors and publishers are conservative.

And who chooses what to report?

"Liberal media" my ass.

No, my ass does not choose what gets reported. I wish.

[jukes]

2. oh, i'll buy that

for a dollar...

[Liberal Classic]

3. The media might be a whole lotta things

But libertarian-leaning sure as hell ain't one of 'em.

[PROGRESSIVE1]

4. They are a bunch of RIGHT WING POS's!!!