Dwatt that wascawy wibewal media!
Liberal media, liberal media! For the last 20 years we've heard that whine -- "how can we get a fair shake when the media has such a liberal bias?"
Well, guess what? A media watchdog group has a new study out that says conservatives get more print on editorial pages than liberals.
Another conservative myth debunked! WMD's .. Trickle Down Economics .. Compassionate Conservatism .. Party of Family Values .. and now the Liberal Media. What will be the next fairy-tale?
Though it wasn't in this study, I'd have to say that liberals may have the advantage when it comes to editorial cartoons. Liberals are famous for their wit and sense of humor.
Radio wasn't a subject either, but the amount of on air rabid rightie radio hours vs wascawy wibewal radio hours is from here to the moon in difference.
According to this article in Media Matters, Editor and Publisher painstakingly gathered data to find out what types of columnists are being published in what markets. The results show a strong conservative bias in most newspapers.
They found that 60 percent of the daily newspapers print more conservative syndicated columnists each week than liberals.
Here are some of the results from the Executive Summary of the study:
"This project did something that has never been done before: It amassed data on the syndicated columnists published by nearly every daily newspaper in the country.
While a few publications, most notably Editor & Publisher, cover the syndicated newspaper industry, no one has attempted to comprehensively assemble this information prior to now.
...The results show that in paper after paper, state after state, and region after region, conservative syndicated columnists get more space than their progressive counterparts. [..]"
Are we surprised? A vast majority of newspapers are massively owned and dominated by conservatives. Can you say Rupert Murdock?
Yep, this study pretty much shreds the rightie claim of liberal bias in the print media .. at least as far as op-ed columnists are concerned.
And, it's no surprise that in recent years GOP presidential candidates have gotten the most newspaper endorsements on editorial pages.
If nearly one in two Americans say they are "moderate" .. why are only two of the top ten columnists in America centrists?
But hey, since Democrats kicked butt in the '06 elections, maybe that means that conservative columnists, or even op-ed columnists in general, have little influence on swing voters.
Anyway, who knows how much better the Dems could have done if there had been more political balance on editorial pages?
