The People vs. the Press

[darrels joy]

The People vs. the Press

The Pew Research Center for the People and the Press has a new survey of "547 national and local reporters, producers, editors, and executives across the country." It finds, not surprisingly, that journalists are far more liberal than the general public (Pew surveyed the latter separately). The section on "Values and the Press" finds that only 7% of national journalists described themselves as "conservative," compared with 33% of the public. Thirty-four percent of national journalists called themselves "liberal," vs. just 20% of the public. A majority of national journalists (54%) called themselves "moderate," while 41% of the public did.

In some ways, though, journalists are even more liberal when compared with the general public than these numbers would indicate. Pew asked three specific questions to gauge journalists' social views:

Is belief in God necessary to be moral?


Should homosexuality be accepted or discouraged by society?


What's more important: that everyone be free to pursue his goals without government interference, or that the government guarantee no one is in need?

On the first two of these questions, the views of self-described moderate journalists were far to the left of the public's:

Public Cons. journos Mod. journos
Belief in God necessary 58% 26% 12%
Belief in God unnecessary 40% 72% 85%
Accept homosexuality 51% 49% 84%
Discourage homosexuality 42% 40% 8%

Self-described liberal journalists were nearly unanimous on both questions, with only 3% saying belief in God is necessary to be moral and 2% saying homosexuality should be discouraged.

In addition, 55% of national journalists say they think the press is "not critical enough" of President Bush; only 24% of the public agrees. Thirty-four percent of the public thinks the press is "too critical," vs. a mere 8% of the national press. Thirty-five percent of both groups characterize coverage of the president as "fair."

Journalists were also asked, "Can you think of any news organizations that are especially liberal?" Among national journalists, 62% said they couldn't. But 82% said they could think of an organization that is "especially conservative."

Among both national and local journalists, 68% percent of self described conservatives answered "yes" to each question, while among self-described moderates, 70% could think of a conservative organization and just 40% could think of a liberal one. Among liberals the gap was even greater: 79% could think of a conservative organization and only 24% of a liberal one.

All this suggests that journalists not only are considerably more liberal than the general public but also wish their own coverage were more liberal than it is. No wonder public confidence in the press is suffering.