Media Matters Publishes Study in Conservative Print Bias by: torridjoe Thu Sep 13, 2007 at 14:00:00 PM PDT

Liberal media, liberal media! For much of the last 20 years or so, that's been the drumbeat of conservatives in America--"how can we get a fair shake when the media has such a liberal bias?" Either they were making stuff up (wouldn't be the first time), they did something about it, or perhaps a little bit of both. But circa 2007, at least among those who are free to editorialize, the news may be making you blue because the most-read speakers are mostly red. So says Media Matters, which has undertaken a massive study comprising 96% of the nation's daily papers in an attempt to discover the balance of syndicated editorial content in the American print media. And what they found was not a balance: The report shows that conservative syndicated columnists are carried in far more newspapers, with much greater audience reach than their progressive counterparts, giving them a distinct advantage in the marketplace of ideas. {more}

torridjoe :: Media Matters Publishes Study in Conservative Print Bias

Among the report's key findings: Conservative Syndicated Columnists Dominate Daily Newspapers -- Sixty percent of the nation's newspapers print more conservative syndicated columnists every week than progressive syndicated columnists. Only 20 percent run more progressives than conservatives, while the remaining 20 percent are evenly balanced. Conservative Syndicated Columnists Reach Millions More Than Progressives -- In a given week, nationally syndicated conservative columnists are published in more than 153 million newspapers. Progressive columnists, on the other hand, are published in 125 million newspapers. Top Syndicated Columnists Are Mostly Conservative -- The top-10 list of columnists, sorted by the number of papers in which they are carried or by the total circulation of the papers in which they are published, includes five conservatives, two centrists, and only three progressives. In Region After Region, Conservative Syndicated Columnists Enjoy Advantage -- In eight of the nine regions into which the U.S. Census divides the country, conservative syndicated columnists reach more readers than progressive syndicated columnists in any given week. Only in the Middle Atlantic region (which includes New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania) do progressive columnists reach more readers each week. "Together these results prove what many have suspected for years -- that our opinion pages are consistently skewed to the right, allowing conservatives a disproportionate advantage in shaping public opinion," said David Brock, President and CEO of Media Matters. "The integrity of our nation's newspapers is at stake when the debate of today's pressing issues is dominated entirely by one side of the argument," Brock said. Uncool, uncool. But you know what IS cool? They break down the results by state and give you the opportunity to review the syndicated columnists for most of the major-to-middling papers in Oregon.  The Oregonian? Split right down the middle, according to their calculations. But do check out the others. And if you want to read the whole report {pdf}, they've provided that for you, too. Kudos to MM for some impressive original research.

Tags: media, Media Matters, bias, print media, (All Tags)

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