Media Bias is Real

[Gravitymaster 0]

Media Bias Is Real, Finds UCLA Political Scientist


Date: December 14, 2005
Contact: Meg Sullivan ( msullivan@support.ucla.edu )
Phone: 310-825-1046



While the editorial page of The Wall Street Journal is conservative, the newspaper's news pages are liberal, even more liberal than The New York Times. The Drudge Report may have a right-wing reputation, but it leans left. Coverage by public television and radio is conservative compared to the rest of the mainstream media. Meanwhile, almost all major media outlets tilt to the left.

These are just a few of the surprising findings from a UCLA-led study, which is believed to be the first successful attempt at objectively quantifying bias in a range of media outlets and ranking them accordingly.

"I suspected that many media outlets would tilt to the left because surveys have shown that reporters tend to vote more Democrat than Republican," said Tim Groseclose, a UCLA political scientist and the study's lead author. "But I was surprised at just how pronounced the distinctions are."

"Overall, the major media outlets are quite moderate compared to members of Congress, but even so, there is a quantifiable and significant bias in that nearly all of them lean to the left," said co‑author Jeffrey Milyo, University of Missouri economist and public policy scholar.

The results appear in the latest issue of the Quarterly Journal of Economics, which will become available in mid-December.

Groseclose and Milyo based their research on a standard gauge of a lawmaker's support for liberal causes. Americans for Democratic Action (ADA) tracks the percentage of times that each lawmaker votes on the liberal side of an issue. Based on these votes, the ADA assigns a numerical score to each lawmaker, where "100" is the most liberal and "0" is the most conservative. After adjustments to compensate for disproportionate representation that the Senate gives to low‑population states and the lack of representation for the District of Columbia, the average ADA score in Congress (50.1) was assumed to represent the political position of the average U.S. voter.

Groseclose and Milyo then directed 21 research assistants — most of them college students — to scour U.S. media coverage of the past 10 years. They tallied the number of times each media outlet referred to think tanks and policy groups, such as the left-leaning NAACP or the right-leaning Heritage Foundation.

Next, they did the same exercise with speeches of U.S. lawmakers. If a media outlet displayed a citation pattern similar to that of a lawmaker, then Groseclose and Milyo's method assigned both a similar ADA score.

"A media person would have never done this study," said Groseclose, a UCLA political science professor, whose research and teaching focuses on the U.S. Congress. "It takes a Congress scholar even to think of using ADA scores as a measure. And I don't think many media scholars would have considered comparing news stories to congressional speeches."

Of the 20 major media outlets studied, 18 scored left of center, with CBS' "Evening News," The New York Times and the Los Angeles Times ranking second, third and fourth most liberal behind the news pages of The Wall Street Journal.

Only Fox News' "Special Report With Brit Hume" and The Washington Times scored right of the average U.S. voter.

The most centrist outlet proved to be the "NewsHour With Jim Lehrer." CNN's "NewsNight With Aaron Brown" and ABC's "Good Morning America" were a close second and third.

"Our estimates for these outlets, we feel, give particular credibility to our efforts, as three of the four moderators for the 2004 presidential and vice-presidential debates came from these three news outlets — Jim Lehrer, Charlie Gibson and Gwen Ifill," Groseclose said. "If these newscasters weren't centrist, staffers for one of the campaign teams would have objected and insisted on other moderators."

The fourth most centrist outlet was "Special Report With Brit Hume" on Fox News, which often is cited by liberals as an egregious example of a right-wing outlet. While this news program proved to be right of center, the study found ABC's "World News Tonight" and NBC's "Nightly News" to be left of center. All three outlets were approximately equidistant from the center, the report found.

"If viewers spent an equal amount of time watching Fox's 'Special Report' as ABC's 'World News' and NBC's 'Nightly News,' then they would receive a nearly perfectly balanced version of the news," said Milyo, an associate professor of economics and public affairs at the University of Missouri at Columbia.

Five news outlets — "NewsHour With Jim Lehrer," ABC's "Good Morning America," CNN's "NewsNight With Aaron Brown," Fox News' "Special Report With Brit Hume" and the Drudge Report — were in a statistical dead heat in the race for the most centrist news outlet. Of the print media, USA Today was the most centrist.

An additional feature of the study shows how each outlet compares in political orientation with actual lawmakers. The news pages of The Wall Street Journal scored a little to the left of the average American Democrat, as determined by the average ADA score of all Democrats in Congress (85 versus 84). With scores in the mid-70s, CBS' "Evening News" and The New York Times looked similar to Sen. Joe Lieberman, D-Conn., who has an ADA score of 74.

Most of the outlets were less liberal than Lieberman but more liberal than former Sen. John Breaux, D-La. Those media outlets included the Drudge Report, ABC's "World News Tonight," NBC's "Nightly News," USA Today, NBC's "Today Show," Time magazine, U.S. News & World Report, Newsweek, NPR's "Morning Edition," CBS' "Early Show" and The Washington Post.

Since Groseclose and Milyo were more concerned with bias in news reporting than opinion pieces, which are designed to stake a political position, they omitted editorials and Op‑Eds from their tallies. This is one reason their study finds The Wall Street Journal more liberal than conventional wisdom asserts.

Another finding that contradicted conventional wisdom was that the Drudge Report was slightly left of center.

"One thing people should keep in mind is that our data for the Drudge Report was based almost entirely on the articles that the Drudge Report lists on other Web sites," said Groseclose. "Very little was based on the stories that Matt Drudge himself wrote. The fact that the Drudge Report appears left of center is merely a reflection of the overall bias of the media."

Yet another finding that contradicted conventional wisdom relates to National Public Radio, often cited by conservatives as an egregious example of a liberal news outlet. But according to the UCLA-University of Missouri study, it ranked eighth most liberal of the 20 that the study examined.

"By our estimate, NPR hardly differs from the average mainstream news outlet," Groseclose said. "Its score is approximately equal to those of Time, Newsweek and U.S. News & World Report and its score is slightly more conservative than The Washington Post's. If anything, government‑funded outlets in our sample have a slightly lower average ADA score (61), than the private outlets in our sample (62.8)."

The researchers took numerous steps to safeguard against bias — or the appearance of same — in the work, which took close to three years to complete. They went to great lengths to ensure that as many research assistants supported Democratic candidate Al Gore in the 2000 election as supported President George Bush. They also sought no outside funding, a rarity in scholarly research.

"No matter the results, we feared our findings would've been suspect if we'd received support from any group that could be perceived as right- or left-leaning, so we consciously decided to fund this project only with our own salaries and research funds that our own universities provided," Groseclose said.

The results break new ground.

"Past researchers have been able to say whether an outlet is conservative or liberal, but no one has ever compared media outlets to lawmakers," Groseclose said. "Our work gives a precise characterization of the bias and relates it to known commodity — politicians."

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I am just completely shocked into silence. Tell me it ain't true.

[sundevil777 102]

Liberals will fool themselves into thinking that there is no left bias because the liberal position on issues is correct.

I heard a story on NPR a week ago that was an interview of a soldier that had recently returned from Iraq. The correspondent started the story by saying that the soldier "still could not see the light at the end of the tunnel". A little later the interview actually started. I expected to hear an obviously liberal leaning soldier stating his objections to the war/policy. I was surprised to hear his story of support for the war, and inspiring stories of how things are improving so much. There wasn't anything at all about "no light at the end of the tunnel".

But some will claim that news sources like NPR are not biased.

I also will admit that Fox News is biased.

Did anyone catch the parody of The O'Reilly Factor? I can't remember if it was on MAD TV or SNL.

People are sick and tired of being told that ordinary and decent people are fed up in this country with being sick and tired. I’m certainly not, and I’m sick and tired of being told that I am

[shropshire 0]

It's interesting that, in the main, people dont find their media biased..... People tend to get their news from the same source and the source that they select usually reflects their own politics...... It's only when people open horizons and look into other sources (different newspapers, for example) that they can see different points of view reported ... which is often interpretted as bias....

.

(.)Y(.)
Chivalry is not dead; it only sleeps for want of work to do. - Jerome K Jerome

[kallend 2,148]

Interesting way of defining the center, don't you think? Flawed, but interesting.

...

The only sure way to survive a canopy collision is not to have one.

[Gravitymaster 0]

Quote

Interesting way of defining the center, don't you think? Flawed, but interesting.

No more flawed than any other method I've seen. Is there any method you would deen acceptable?

[kallend 2,148]

Quote

Quote

Interesting way of defining the center, don't you think? Flawed, but interesting.

No more flawed than any other method I've seen. Is there any method you would deen acceptable?

They should have asked me.

...

The only sure way to survive a canopy collision is not to have one.

[rushmc 23]

Ok, I will ask.

Who, in your opinion, is the most centrist senator currently in office?

Would that give us some perspective?

"America will never be destroyed from the outside,
if we falter and lose our freedoms,
it will be because we destroyed ourselves."
Abraham Lincoln

[masterblaster72 0]

Remember Faces of the Fallen on Nightline? Construed as a left-wing conspiracy, when all that was being done was acknowledging those who gave their lives to the country. Something that should be expected, yet since it went against the interests of the administration, it was painted by the right as left-wing and unpatriotic. Disgusting.

I don't buy this report -- it lost me when I read that the Drudge report is left-leaning. Are they joking or what?

I'm not saying that the media isn't biased. But I don't think there is an across-the-board left-leaning bias in tv news. If a republican politician is asked challenging questions by a journalist, the right cries left-wing media bias. But the journalist is just doing his/her job. Unfortunately, most journalists aren't asking the right questions, so I don't take mainstream news seriously anyhow.

Maybe this is my bias, but I think that liberals are much less of a danger to free press than conservatives are, simply because (and I know many conservatives may disagree with this) liberals are more tolerant to opposing views than conservatives are. Example: the editorial prominence of Robert Novak from supposedly left-leaning CNN compared to the prominence of Alan Colmes from Fox. There's no comparison.

Be humble, ask questions, listen, learn, follow the golden rule, talk when necessary, and know when to shut the fuck up.

[kallend 2,148]

Quote

Quote

Interesting way of defining the center, don't you think? Flawed, but interesting.

No more flawed than any other method I've seen. Is there any method you would deen acceptable?

Yes. Capitalism.

A free media provides the public with the balance it wants. By definition, the center of gravity of the free media IS the center. If the media as a whole biases one way or the other, new outlets will spring up to correct the balance.

Easy, really, if you really believe in capitalism rather than paying lip service..

...

The only sure way to survive a canopy collision is not to have one.

[wmw999 2,588]

Quote

But some will claim that news sources like NPR are not biased.

Interestingly, though, in the story above, the Newshour with Jim Lehrer is, in fact, on NPR.

And it's wonderful.

Not every single story is going to fit every single person. But if you find yourself liking, and agreeing with, the vast majority of what's on a particular network, it's likely that they share the same biases with you. Which makes them biased.

Wendy W.

There is nothing more dangerous than breaking a basic safety rule and getting away with it. It removes fear of the consequences and builds false confidence. (tbrown)

[kallend 2,148]

Quote

Quote

But some will claim that news sources like NPR are not biased.

Interestingly, though, in the story above, the Newshour with Jim Lehrer is, in fact, on NPR.



Wendy W.

I'm sure you meant to emphasize that it was the closest to what the study defined as the center (not suggesting I agree with that definition).

...

The only sure way to survive a canopy collision is not to have one.

[likearock 2]

Quote

Ok, I will ask.

Who, in your opinion, is the most centrist senator currently in office?

Would that give us some perspective?

I'd say it's John McCain. What would you say?

[billvon 3,116]

>I heard a story on NPR a week ago that was an interview of a soldier
> that had recently returned from Iraq. The correspondent started the
> story by saying that the soldier "still could not see the light at the
> end of the tunnel".

I heard a few NPR stories like that over the last few weeks.

One was from a Marine who was also an art student who singlehandedly (well, with about a dozen other people) recovered about half the artifacts looted from the Baghdad museum. Was really quite touching; he described how these grizzled Marines were getting all emotional over recovering the first decorated pot ever found.

Another was about a contractor working on power plants in Iraq. He talked about how much damage there had been to the infrastructure both from pre-invasion neglect and invasion damage, and how sabotage and looting were still problems. But overall he said that a lot of basic progress was being made.

Haven't heard many stories like that coming from the mainstream press.

> I was surprised to hear his story of support for the war, and
>inspiring stories of how things are improving so much.

And since they air stories like this, they are biased?

Many people need news pre-digested for them; for these people, O'Reilly, Limbaugh, Franken etc are good options. Others prefer more detail; for those people, stations like NPR are a good choice. NPR has less bias in _either_ direction because more of their news comes from the people who make it, rather than talking heads.

[rushmc 23]

Many people need news pre-digested for them; for these people, O'Reilly, Limbaugh, Franken etc are good options. Others prefer more detail; for those people, stations like NPR are a good choice. NPR has less bias in _either_ direction because more of their news comes from the people who make it, rather than talking heads.

[billvon 3,116]

>I am glad you are the expert on what people need . . .

Everyone makes their own choices. They choose on their own what best meets their needs. That's how capitalism works! (ain't it cool?)

[rushmc 23]

Quote

Quote

Ok, I will ask.

Who, in your opinion, is the most centrist senator currently in office?

Would that give us some perspective?

I'd say it's John McCain. What would you say?

You know, I asked the question but I really did not think about how I would answer it
Fully knowing that this is a question of perspective McCain would be a lefty to me but, with in the context of the study he would be as good a quess as I could make.

You make me think

now my head hurts

"America will never be destroyed from the outside,
if we falter and lose our freedoms,
it will be because we destroyed ourselves."
Abraham Lincoln

[rushmc 23]

"America will never be destroyed from the outside,
if we falter and lose our freedoms,
it will be because we destroyed ourselves."
Abraham Lincoln