Over the past few weeks, Bill Clinton, Al Gore, Tom Daschle and other leading Democrats have made statements complaining about a conservative media bias. However, just 25% of Americans believe that there really is such a conservative bias. Twice as many, 47%, believe there is a liberal bias "in the nation's major media outlets."
Even self-described liberal voters aren't sure about what they're hearing from national Democratic leaders. Just 37% of liberals see a conservative media bias, 41% do not. Among all Democrats, opinion is split with 35% taking each side.
The opposite view-- that there is a liberal bias in the media-- is held by majorities or pluralities of men, women, young, old, investors, white Americans, those who discuss politics frequently with family and friends, conservatives, moderates, private sector workers, and union members.
Republicans see a liberal bias by 70% to 9% margin. Unaffiliated voters share this view by a 38% to 28% margin. Democrats are divided—33% see a liberal bias and 36% disagree.
Even among core Democratic constituencies, the notion of a conservative media bias is a hard sell.
• When asked if there is a conservative bias, 38% of union members say yes, 42% say no.
• 33% of black Americans see a conservative bias, 25% do not.
• 31% of government employees say there is a conservative bias, 51% disagree.
• Among those who say they will vote for Al Gore in 2004, 35% say there is a conservative bias while 34% disagree.
• Women, by a 40% to 24% margin, say there is no conservative bias.
Moderates reject charges of a conservative bias by a 43% to 24% margin. Only 26% of those who talk about politics at least once a week with family and friends agree with the charges of a conservative bias, 55% disagree.
Charges of a conservative media bias by national Democrats may simply be the result of frustration over the weakness of their party. As described in The GOP Generation, the Democrats are likely to become a permanent minority party if President Bush performs well over the next two years.
Please share your thoughts about media bias.
Data in this article is derived from a national telephone survey of 1,000 adults conducted by Scott Rasmussen Public Opinion Research on December 4 and 5, 2002. The margin of sampling error for the full sample is +/- 3 percentage points, with a 95% level of confidence.
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if 60% of people believe santa is real, does that mean it's so?
if 40% of people believe santa is not real, does that it isn't so?
these kinds of polls don't PROOVE anything, they just illustrate what people think.
i feel sad for republicans who believe 70% of the media is far left, and 30% isn't. for them to believe that the likes of Fox News Network, CNN, CNBC, ABC, CBS, NBC, and the newspapers and radio shows are left of center means they are essentially far right nazis looking for a mainline fix of pure propaganda. will they ever be satisfied? will they ever find a news network that measures up...
it's intersting that both "left" and "right" think there's some kind of bias, one way or the other. but i don't think it means that "the media" is doing a good job because it's pissing off both sides. it just means the media is playing both sides, trying to piss off one side to attract the other, and missing the truth.
whatever the story, there is a truth behind it. something happened, and there are facts to proove it. it may not please one side, but like it or not, there is a truth somewhere, and truth doesn't play politics. it just is. but the media wants to play politics more than do it's job of being a nuetral messenger of the truth. it can make more money by pleasing, placating, brown nosing, kissing ass, and stirring people up than it can by being impartial and looking for what really happened, saying "just the facts, ma'am."
this is just my opinion. it isn't a "fact". it isn't a fucking poll. but i think there's a mindest in the american public. and this mindset is really quite infantile. very, very infantile and childish. and everybody's guilty of it, including myself. no denying it.
the mindset is the infantile expectation that the world works according to how one side wants it to. that all the news is going to be good news. that the news will show that one side is more right about the world than other. that any news we will see is supposed to measure up to how we thought it would be. this is such an infantile, childish, selfish expectation. in a sense, people want their news exactly how they want their hamburger: just as they ordered it. and so people get pissed off at "the messenger" when something they don't like is shown on the t.v. screen. but the world don't work like that, never has, never will...