Failing at Its "No. 1 Goal" Lack of balance at C-SPAN’s Washington Journal

[proud2BlibKansan]

Since 1979, C-SPAN has provided an invaluable service to viewers with its no-frills coverage of congressional hearings, press briefings, demonstrations, book readings and other political events. By presenting public affairs with a minimal intrusion by hosts or reporters, C-SPAN has gained a reputation as a frictionless conveyer of raw political information to the public.

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To test C-SPAN’s claims of fairness, Extra! studied Washington Journal’s guestlist, tabulating all 663 guests that appeared on the show in the six-month period from November 1, 2004 to April 30, 2005. Guests were classified by gender, ethnicity, party affiliation (if any) and occupation. The study also looked at the think tanks most prominently represented on the show.

Despite C-SPAN’s stated goals, Extra!’s study found Washington Journal skewing rightward, favoring Republican and right-of-center interview subjects by considerable margins over Democratic and left-of-center guests. The study also found that women, people of color and public interest viewpoints were substantially underrepresented.

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Out of the 205 partisan guests, Republicans outnumbered Democrats nearly two to one (134 to 70): Republicans accounted for 65 percent of Washington Journal’s partisan guests, while Democrats made up 34 percent. No representative of a third party appeared during the study period.

Elected officials who appeared on Washington Journal were slightly more balanced than overall partisan guests. Of the 97 elected officials appearing on the show (senators and House members), 58 were Republican and 39 were Democrat—a 60 to 40 percent imbalance in favor of the GOP.

more . . . http://www.fair.org/index.php?page=2764

[GreenPartyVoter]

1. I hope someone sent this info to C-Span.

[AndyA]

3. +1

There is at least one host on C-Span that I refuse to watch. Their soiled GOP underwear is always exposed, it seems. I'm not sure how many they have because I don't watch it often, but one guy seems very right wing.

[KharmaTrain]

2. This Is 4 Years Old...

But it still is very valid...if anything more valid. CSPIN loves to fill its airtime with hacks from the AEI and other right wing "think" tanks as well as columnists and authors that is rarely balanced with people from other perspectives. WJ always frames questions with a right wing spin and has a habit of "rotating" their phones with one GOOP call, one independent, one GOOP, one Democrat. They make sure the talking points are out there. This network has long been a place where these memes are astroturfed, picked up by hate radio shows (citing CSPIN's "neutrality") that spin the talking poitns into big stories by day's end.

FAIR asked CSPIN to respond...they never did. Methinks its time they updated this story.

Cheers...

[malaise]

4. Well since we watch or listen almost every day

This is hardly news. :hi:

I agree - time to update this story.

[proud2BlibKansan]

5. And not much has changed.

I quit watching Wash Journal a while back. So disappointing.