Journalists? Liberal? Really?
Juan Non-Volokh reports here that the Pew Research Center has released a study showing (yet again) that journalists are more liberal than the public at large:
Specifically, a higher percentage of journalists self-identify themselves as “liberal” than of the public at large. Perhaps more significantly, the Pew survey also finds that on certain issues, such as religion and homosexuality, journalists are far more liberal than then general public. Of course, no one would ever expect this to impact the way news is covered.
Certainly not.
In other news, a second Pew study shows that the Earth is round, and that the government’s habit of taxing its citizens is likely to continue.
P.S. An interesting (if predictable) detail of the study: the answers to specific “issues” questions show that journalists are more liberal than they admit. Whereas most continue to self-identify as “moderate,” the answers given to specific questions about religion and homosexuality indicate a strong tilt to the left. This reinforces what many of us believe: journalists think they are far more moderate than they actually are.
UPDATE: Power Line has some interesting points on the survey.
Patterico and Juan are partisan hacks, so it shouldn’t come as a surprise that they forget to mention that a higher precentage of journalists self-identify themslves as “moderate” than of the public at large. Bad journalists! Bad, bad journalists!
Patterico’s implied criticism of this situation is similar to his criticism of press coverage of the war: The public is failing to support Bush’s prosecution of the war because of biased press coverage, not because the facts on the ground are pretty crummy.
Likewise, if someone is in the business of covering government day in and day out, with attention and diligence, the “facts on the ground” might well convince them that liberals are more reasonable than conservatives. Just a hypothesis, of course, but no less inherently plausible than Patterico’s insinuations.
Comment by m.croche — 5/24/2004 @ 6:59 am
I had actually put up my P.S. before Croche’s comment, but apparently he was working off the original version of the post without the postscript.
In any event, the self-identification as “moderates” does not impress me, for the reasons stated in the postscript.
Comment by Patterico — 5/24/2004 @ 7:04 am
Oops. And the growth of self-identified liberals has risen quite a bit — much moreso than that of self-ID’d conservatives.
Funny, too, how Fox News is at the top of these journalists’ “tilted” news outlets! No wonder! If you’re a liberal, who’s “biased” then? LOL!
Comment by Dave Huber — 5/24/2004 @ 9:10 am
WHO KNEW?
Via The Volokh Conspiracy: Editor & Publisher reports on a new Pew Research Center poll which found — get this — “while most of the journalists, like many Americans, describe themselves as ‘moderate,’ a far higher number are ‘liberal’ than…
Trackback by Hube's Cube — 5/24/2004 @ 10:36 am
In his postscript, Patterico continues to be selective in the data he sets forward. (Note by the way, that Pew only asked three questions about social values and policy, so this final, small section of the study is hardly a thorough investigation into the cultural, social and political beliefs of journalists.)
When asked, “What’s more important for American society - that everyone be free to pursue their life’s goals without interference from the government OR that the government plays an active role in society so as to guarantee that nobody is in need” journalists came out about even with the public. Interestingly, the execs were more out of sync with the public on this issue than the journalists - on the “conservative” side.
As regards homosexuality and religion: why does Patterico assume that being libertarian on social issues is the same thing as being “liberal”? After all, it’s reasonable to assume that a number of folks who strongly believe that “people should be free to pursue life’s goals without interference from the government” will also resist the notion that society should discourage homosexuality.
Comment by m.croche — 5/24/2004 @ 11:18 am
Almost invariably, people describe themselves as liberal/moderate/conservative based not on where their views fall among the population as a whole, but how they compare to those they interact with on a daily basis. If half of your colleagues are to your left politically, and the other half to the right, then gee, you must be a moderate!
Comment by Xrlq — 5/24/2004 @ 2:04 pm
I think Croche is right (did I say that?) to note that the two “social issues” questions could easily be answered the same way by libertarians and by social liberals. This is hardly surprising, given that the two groups tend to agree on many social issues.
(I’ll also note that my personal beliefs line up with those of the majority of journalists, regarding the specific questions re homosexuality and religion.)
However, it is a mistake to see this as proof that journalists are “libertarian” rather than “liberal” or “leftist.” The overwhelming libertarianism displayed by national journalists on social issues evaporates entirely when economic issues are discussed. Here, national journalists prove to be more socialistic than the general public.
I agree that this study could go much deeper. Although the self-diagnosis is interesting, the individual questions prove little more than the inaccuracy of the self-diagnosis. I would like to have seen something much more comprehensive.
At the same time, there is much more evidence out there besides this study supporting the thesis of a liberal media.
Comment by Patterico — 5/24/2004 @ 2:15 pm
“The overwhelming libertarianism displayed by national journalists on social issues” also evaporates when the wrong social issues are discussed. Take, for example, gun control, First Amendment reform (a.k.a. campaign finance “reform”), etc.
Comment by Xrlq — 5/24/2004 @ 3:44 pm
Yeah, I know — that’s just not documented in this particular study. I was limiting my comments to that.
It’s overwhelmingly clear that reporters are leftist — to anyone without an axe to grind.
Comment by Patterico — 5/24/2004 @ 4:07 pm
Nice try, croche, but you fail to defeat the argument. In reality, most journalists are what might be classified as libertarian socialists. Because they share some of the far right (libertarians’) ideas about things, they fancy themselves to be moderates. However most people who say they are moderates are really liberals.
That is a fact among the general public and is certainly true among journalists. Democrats running for office hate being called liberal. So do journalists.
Comment by Xenocrates — 5/25/2004 @ 9:28 am
Forgot to add that there was an interesting piece a while back from Bush’s pollster who said that he believed the same thing about moderates not really existing.
Comment by Xenocrates — 5/25/2004 @ 9:29 am
What is a “libertarian socialist?” Anything like a jumbo shrimp?
Comment by Xrlq — 5/25/2004 @ 3:03 pm