Tuesday, March 18, 2008

Liberal Media?

Pew Research's latest findings (with the Project for Excellence in Journalism) continue to confirm that most journalists see themselves as moderates.



The findings have remained "basically flat" since 2004 when a similar survey was taken, said Amy Mitchell, deputy director of the media research group.
(The Washington Times)
I would quibble with Mitchell's characterization of the results. It is true enough that there is relatively little change, but the survey results at least offer a suggestion of political polarization. At either end of the spectrum there was an apparent increase in the willingness of journalists to identify themselves as "very" whatever-it-is-they-were. For conservatives, that number appeared to come more-or-less from the number who previously identified themselves as "conservative" (yes of course it wasn't the same survey respondents as in previous years).
The "very liberal" column grew at the expense of both the "liberal" and "moderate" columns.

Another survey waits to be done. That survey would take the journalists' self-conception of what it is to be "moderate" and compare that with the way the nation as a whole breaks down. I think journalism's "moderate" falls somewhere to the left of the national "moderate," and I'd bet that a survey would back that up.


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