A recent report by the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press (9/12/10) deals in part with the news outlets sought out by different partisan and ideological groups–Democrats and Republicans; conservatives, moderates and liberals. Which outlets are attractive to which groups–particularly the most polarized groups in the survey, conservative Republicans and liberal Democrats–sheds an interesting light on the question of press bias.
First, when looking at generic media categories, you see that many of them are more attractive to the right than to the left: When asked which outlets they used regularly, conservative Republicans were more likely than liberal Democrats to name local TV (50 percent vs. 40 percent), daily newspapers (47/40) and community papers (37/26). Others were relied on more or less as much by both political poles: network evening news (23/24), Sunday morning shows (11/13) and news blogs (12/13). The categories that were less attractive to the conservative Republicans than to liberal Democrats were morning shows (15/21) and news magazines (7/16).
There is a widespread public perception–one that FAIR has offered much evidence to debunk over the years–that there’s a pervasive liberal bias in U.S. news media. When asked about journalistic bias by the Pew survey, 43 percent said they saw mostly liberal bias, with only 23 seeing mainly conservative slant. If newspapers and TV news were biased against the right, though, one would expect that the left would find them to be more attractive–yet that doesn’t seem to be the case. (Bear in mind that the percentages cited are of the groups themselves–it doesn’t matter how big a fraction of the general public each subset represents.) Are right-wingers more willing to accept news whose point of view they disagree with? That’s not what they tell Pew: 41 percent of conservative Republicans said they prefer to get news from sources that share their political point of view, vs. 33 percent of liberal Democrats.
Turning to specific news outlets, the one that’s most attractive to either wing is, unsurprisingly, Fox News–watched regularly by 48 percent of conservative Republicans and only 7 percent of liberal Democrats. Though the audiences of its rivals, CNN and MSNBC, did skew left (10/26 and 5/18, respectively), neither was as attractive to the left as Fox was to the right, and the ratios were not as lopsided: Fox is watched by one side seven times more than the other, vs. three times as much for CNN and four times as much for MSNBC. C-SPAN had a less polarized audience (2/3).
Looking at individual cable shows, the survey found a handful of Fox shows that strongly appealed to conservative Republicans and were virtually ignored by liberal Democrats: The O’Reilly Factor (27 percent vs. 1 percent), Hannity (20/0) and Glenn Beck (19/0). MSNBC‘s roster had shows that were correspondingly ignored by conservative Republicans, but were not nearly so attractive to liberal Democrats: Hardball (1/7), Maddow (1/7) and Countdown (0/7). The satirical shows of Comedy Central (Daily Show, 3/14; Colbert Report, 2/11) came closer to the appeal of the Fox programs for liberal Democrats, but their audiences were somewhat less politically homogeneous.
Two radio outlets were included in Pew’s survey: the Rush Limbaugh Show and NPR. Limbaugh’s program had political demographics similar to Fox‘s programs (17/1), whereas NPR looked more like CNN (6/23).
Finally, among national newspapers, the Wall Street Journal and USA Today had more appeal to the right (both 7/3), whereas the New York Times had much more appeal for the left (1/13). This was perhaps the most surprising finding in the survey of political media preferences: The politics of the Times, in our evaluation, are not that different from USA Today‘s. The Times does, of course, derive much of its circulation from its home city, which has a liberal Democratic political culture. One also suspects that having “USA” as part of a name has more cultural appeal to conservatives than “New York.”
Jim, do you think that one reason for this public perception of a “liberal bias” is that the debate is skewed so far to the right that anything that is somewhat less conservative than that is perceived as “liberal”, while a position has to be well to the right to be seen as “conservative”?
For instance, advocating for “cap and trade” seems to be seen as a “liberal” stance (hitting the quotes hard here, aren’t I?), which, while I would deem it “liberal” (meaning faux progressive) in my lexicon, I don’t see it as anything other than greenwashing to the advantage of corporations.
And legislation like SB1070 is pronounced “conservative”, when a empirical view would opt for “racist”.
What are your thoughts on this?
how cable news viewing habits have changed since 2000:
* Democrats: -3% (Fox), +1% (CNN), +3% (MSNBC)
* Independents: +3% (Fox), -2% (CNN), 0 (MSNBC)
* Republicans: +22% (Fox), -9% (CNN), -6% (MSNBC)
in 2000 fauxnews viewship was 18% gop, 18% dem, 17% indi….
in 2008 the numbers were……… 40% gop, 15% dem, 20 % indi
kevin drum notes : In other words, Democrats and Independents have changed their viewing habits only slightly while Republicans have flocked to Fox and dropped both CNN and MSNBC in droves.
a friend noted that even though cnn and msnbc have become much more corporatist, they haven’t gained republican viewers, they’ve lost them
helpful graph at the link:
http://motherjones.com/kevin-drum/2010/09/foxification-republican-party
It seems to me that when I am watching Meet the Press, CNN shows, or other supposedly nonpartisan news and opinion shows on TV there is a pattern. The Republican is asked a question, and allowed to answer in full. Then the Democrat is asked to respond. He is usually interrupted and talked over by the Republican with no correction by the moderator. The Democrat also gets less talking time. They then go for a commercial break and that’s the end of it. I really wish someone would do a study and publish the results. I know that I am biased but I can’t believe it accounts for much of what I see as lopsided. Is it just me?
Fox News is strictly Republican. MSNBC almost strictly Democratic and CNN somewhere in the middle.
I wish FAIR would publish the story of the top ten Journalism schools in the US as poled in a question to their professors as to their political bias.I think their were like 5 tenured profs who admitted to being conservative out of hundreds.These are the people filling the minds of mush.No liberal bias indeed.
Dems do not watch Rush….but recovering Dems like myself do.As do most independents.These show are unabashedly conservative.There is almost no counterweight.The John Stew… and Kieth Ober..types mock but do not sell an unabashedly liberal standpoint.Because honestly in the arena of ideas it simply would fall flat.Libs in office have had to slip and slide their legislation through as we have seen through trickery and bribery along with a good dose of chicago style political threats.Libs in the public view have to survive of mocking others and hiding their true beliefs.
Michael e…Boldly going into “the arena of ideas” unarmed…A manly man!
@ steven r. : cnn has more democratic viewers than msnbc does…
cnn’s breakdowns show their audience is slightly less than half democratic and slighty more than half indies and gop combined, while msnbc is half democratic, half everyone else
Jim, I think that would be “NEO ‘liberal Democrats’ “. Otherwise these days it seems like an oxymoron putting those two words together in any kind of serious context.
I’m even getting a little adverse to being called “progressive” when I look around at see where the media points to for that political demographic.
Helen you sweetheart- how’d you all know I have no arms.THanks for calling me a manly man.Right back at ya.
And where does the audience of “Democracy Now” fit it? Are we the infamous “professional left”? Are we the wacko Bernie Sanders, Michael Moores and Kuciniches of the public? Should we pack up and leave for France, Sweden, Norway, Venezuela or Cuba?