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December 19, 2005
More Proof Of MSM Bias
A new study led by UCLA political scientist Tim Groseclose confirms what other studies has already shown: the mainstream media is biased toward the left (via Instapundit):
While the editorial page of The Wall Street Journal is conservative, the newspaper's news pages are liberal, even more liberal than The New York Times. The Drudge Report may have a right-wing reputation, but it leans left. Coverage by public television and radio is conservative compared to the rest of the mainstream media. Meanwhile, almost all major media outlets tilt to the left.These are just a few of the surprising findings from a UCLA-led study, which is believed to be the first successful attempt at objectively quantifying bias in a range of media outlets and ranking them accordingly.
"I suspected that many media outlets would tilt to the left because surveys have shown that reporters tend to vote more Democrat than Republican," said Tim Groseclose, a UCLA political scientist and the study's lead author. "But I was surprised at just how pronounced the distinctions are."
Groseclose does make a mistake in his opinion of the Drudge Report. Anyone who thinks the Drudge Report is a blog is clearly mistaken: Drudge is a link portal--to my knowledge he has never written a single word of original copy:
"One thing people should keep in mind is that our data for the Drudge Report was based almost entirely on the articles that the Drudge Report lists on other Web sites," said Groseclose. "Very little was based on the stories that Matt Drudge himself wrote. The fact that the Drudge Report appears left of center is merely a reflection of the overall bias of the media."
Of course anyone who reads Drudge at all knows that he's the ultimate linker. And Groseclose also make an error in asserting that Drudge's left of center bias exactly reflects the media he links to, because Groseclose overlooks the fact that Drudge makes an actual decision as to which stories he links to on his site--and I think it's obvious that Drudge, in spite of his reputation, is actually pretty dead on center.
But it's a fascinating study, especially in the way it compares news stories to the speeches of our elected officials. It's very common for people to assume that politicians are an elitist out-of-touch group, but I think in reality they are very aware of the pulse of their constituents.
Not that I needed any additional proof--see subject: Mary Mapes.
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