A lot of people feel media in general is horribly biased towards Democrats and liberal politics. Other people think it’s a conspiracy theory. MSNBC kinda puts it all in perspective in a very simple way I had never even thought of doing. They looked at where journalists give their money. Now, to me, if I were a journalist and were wanting to at the very least appear neutral, I wouldn’t give to anyone for any reason. I rarely do anyway and I’m just a typical guy with no claims of being neutral on any issue. So, it seems to me that if someone tends to give to a particular organization, they are biased towards that organization. Fair enough assumption? So, without further doo-doo, here’s the facts according to MSNBC:
- Journalists donating to Republican/Conservative issues: 17, that’s 12%.
- Journalists donating to Democrat/Liberal issues: 125, that’s 87%
- Journalists donating to both: 2, that’s 1%
According to Opensecrets, the media industry as a whole leans toward Democrat/Liberal issues as well by at least a 2 to 1 margin over the last 10 years or so.
Having more fun with Opensecrets, of the top 20 recipients each year since 1996:
- Media has donated over $22 million to Democrat candidates, $6 million to Republicans, and $100,000 to Independents.
- 89 were Democrat, 30 Republican, 1 Independent
- All six top recipients were Democrat, four of six second places were Democrat, five of six third places were Democrat, five of six fourth places Democrat, and the Republicans finally broke in with half of the fifth place finishes. The best an Independent could do in any year was 17th.
- Only five people received donations four or more of the six periods, they are all Democrat.
- The top 10 recipients over this time are:
- John Kerry (D)
- George Bush (R)
- Hillary Clinton (D)
- Barbara Boxer (D)
- Al Gore (D)
- Richard Gephardt (D)
- Charles Schumer (D)
- Howard Berman (D)
- Tom Dasche (D)
- Bill Bradley (D)
Not terribly surprising, the only Republican that consistently did well on the list was the President of the United States. Several Democrat candidates for office were on the list, none Republican.
Had enough? Still think what you read and see from the media is objective in any way?
Quickie update:Over at Captain’s Quarters, the discussion on this topic has taken the angle of not allowing journalists, read media in general, to donate to political candidates. To me this is a horrid idea. Rather than cloaking media bias, I want to know it exists. If I know it exists, I know how to take an article by said journalist. Rather than cloaking their bias by not allowing donations, I’d rather have a media database that tracks their activities and donations like opensecrets.org does for politicians. After all, media does consider itself The Fourth Estate of our government. So treat them as such. Make them report donations, outside incomes, and other influences as our elected officials do now.
Then, we might have more accountability from the media instead of less.
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American Phoenix on 07.01.2007
I agree completely. Great idea!