Media Bias: Hoping for What We Report

Have you ever wondered how the record-setting economic numbers of the past few years have produced such doom-and-gloom reporting from the media?

Larry Elder examines "Why so many Americans believe we're in a recession."

From Larry Elder's WorldNetDaily column today:

Two professors, John Lott, economist and resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute, and Kevin A. Hassett, the Institute's director of economic policy studies, looked at newspaper articles on the economy. They wrote, "We found that newspaper headlines reporting economic news on unemployment, gross domestic product (GDP), retail sales and durable goods tended to be much more frequently negative when a Republican was in the White House. And this was true even after accounting for the economic numbers on which the stories were based and how those numbers were changing over time." So bad economic news becomes less bad economic news with a Democrat sitting in the White House. With a Republican in the White House, however, good economic news becomes less good, and bad becomes even worse.

The Pew Center for Excellence in Journalism surveys journalists annually. Their report, "The State of the News Media 2007," found more than one-third (34 percent) of national journalists identified themselves as liberal, as compared to one-fifth (20 percent) of the general public. Only 7 percent of the national press self-identified as conservative, compared with 33 percent of the general public. The press and the public are widely divided on social issues and values, as well. For example, while 58 percent of Americans think belief in God is necessary to be moral, only 6 percent of national journalists agree.

The Pew Center report only covers what journalists admit about themselves. And while 59 percent of this pool of national reporters couldn't think of a single news organization that was liberal, a whopping 82 percent said they could think of conservative news coverage. Even so, 64 percent of national journalists admit that criticism about the blurring of reporting and commentary is valid.

Elder said that 34% identified themselves as liberal and 7% as conservative. What about that other 59%? Since liberals usually run from the "liberal" label and prefer to call themselves something cushy like "progressive" or better yet "moderate," I'll bet most of that remaining 59% is made of masquerading "moderate" liberals.

I believe this slanted media coverage also accounts for why, despite progress in Iraq, public support for the effort has eroded. Average people can't be subjected to the anti-war drum beat of the media day after day and not be expected to pick up some of it.

Perhaps the saddest part of media bias is that I don't think most biased journalists even realize it when they slant a story. They may see their leftist bias as so natural, that to assume anything to the contrary would be like expecting the sun to rise in the north.

After all, doesn't everyone see the world like Ted Kennedy and Hillary Clinton?