Friday, October 24, 2008

Voters call “bias” on MSM

Do journalists report the news fairly without favor for either party?

Most J-school professors, the network anchors, David Gergen, Bill Moyers, Gwen Ifill, Dan Rather, and most journalists at local newspapers keep saying they do.

But the public doesn’t agree.

Here's the latest example of the publics disagreement - - -

The the Pew Research Center’s Project for Excellence in Journalism reports:

Voters overwhelmingly believe that the media wants Barack Obama to win the presidential election.

By a margin of 70%-9%, Americans say most journalists want to see Obama, not John McCain, win on Nov. 4. Another 8% say journalists don't favor either candidate, and 13% say they don't know which candidate most reporters support. (all emphases added)

A separate study released Wednesday by the Pew Research Center’s Project for Excellence in Journalism looks at the media’s recent campaign coverage and finds that McCain received significantly more negative than positive coverage between the GOP convention and the final debate. The study says that press treatment of Obama has been somewhat more positive than negative, but not markedly so. [See "Winning the Media Campaign" released October 22, 2008.]

In recent presidential campaigns, voters repeatedly have said they thought journalists favored the Democratic candidate over the Republican. But this year's margin is particularly wide.

At this stage of the 2004 campaign, 50% of voters said most journalists wanted to see John Kerry win the election, while 22% said most journalists favored George Bush. In October 2000, 47% of voters said journalists wanted to see Al Gore win and 23% said most journalists wanted Bush to win. In 1996, 59% said journalists were pulling for Bill Clinton.

In the current campaign, Republicans, Democrats and independents all feel that the media wants to see Obama win the election. Republicans are almost unanimous in their opinion: 90% of GOP voters say most journalists are pulling for Obama. More than six-in-ten Democratic and independent voters (62% each) say the same.

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Comments:

No one should be surprised by any of what Pew reports.

I hope those of you who lean or are GOPers or politically conservative print and save or file electronically the Pew report so you can use it the next time some MSMer tries the following on you - - -

“Oh sure, we hear complaints from conservatives and Republicans all the time. But we’re really pretty fair.”

Or this one - - -

“Well, I know you’re upset and we get calls from Dems and Liberals who are upset, too. I always say if your catching it from both sides you must be doing about right.”

That stuff is bosh.

For decades MSM has been titling left and Democratic; and in this campaign more so than I ever remember.

The public across the political spectrum is noticing and calling "bias" on MSM.

Hat tip: Instapundit

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

The media always have their "useful idiots" on tap who can be relied upon to write letters accusing the media of being biased in favor of the Right. That way, whenever letters are written to newspapers/magazines accusing them of Leftwing bias, the media merely signal their "other side of the issue" writers who fire off a letter saying just the opposite. I have experienced this time and again, so I'm not paranoid. But my experience has caused me to be very cynical about the media and I have concluded it doesn't do a bit of good to write letters or try to reason with them or push them to admit they're a bunch of lying reprobates. As the man says "Are you going to believe me or your lying eyes?"
Tarheel Hawkeye

Anonymous said...

Good news, the writing is on the wall at last. AP has to make itself important to the Internet, or bite the dust with the dead wood media. Lying doesn’t pay as well as it used to I guess. Feeling sorry for them is above my pay grade.
---------------
Market Watch:
-AP extends olive branch to member newspapers Will cut fees by additional $9 million-
[on the heels of $21 million in fee reductions announced earlier this year.]

The move comes after last week's news that major metropolitan dailies gave AP notice they might cancel AP services in 2010.

McClatchy stocks falls under $2.50
MNI = $2.41

Anonymous said...

John, GretaWire has a great continuing voter’s fraud story. Some college journalists found out-of-state Obama campaign workers registering and voting in Ohio. They brought them down.

The ‘Frauders’ said they just felt so welcomed, so at home, that they registered and voted. They didn’t know there was a law against that.

Yes, and they used the address of the same vacant little house. It seems someone quickly put some beds in the house when the story broke.

The saga goes on to say there were at least 700 Obama workers in Ohio, and they are quickly revoking their votes as we speak.

"Tom Reynolds who is one of those who signed the letter withdrawing his registration and vote is Senator Obama’s local campaign spokesperson. OUCH!"

The young journalists will be on Greta later to explain their investigation. There is hope after all. This is a great story.