Comments on: What Biased Media?

By: Preston

Preston — Thu, 20 Mar 2008 11:05:55 +0000

Well, this is a tangent but it's not such a leap of faith to suggest that someone with a college degree and writing skills good enough to land a job at a newspaper could be making a good deal more than the $28 K they start out at in average. As for the second point- the only thing that matters is that people drawn to journalism believe that they will be providing a service to their communities that justifies the lower salary they earn.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Thu, 20 Mar 2008 04:41:27 +0000

It doesnâ€™t surprise me that individuals who forsake lucrative jobs and choose instead to pursue careers that better their communities

That requires a pretty huge leap of faith on your part.

First, it assumes that they would be capable of acquiring and excelling at a more lucrative job.

Secondly it assumes not only that journalism itself serves to “better their communities” but that the contribution of this specific hypothetical journalist does so as well.

I would agree with you that people with certain outlooks and predispositions are drawn to such fields…which goes a long way toward explaining why members seem so homogenous in outlook, but I wouldn’t be so quick to elevate them to sainthood.

By: Preston

Preston — Wed, 19 Mar 2008 22:08:43 +0000

It doesn’t surprise me that individuals who forsake lucrative jobs and choose instead to pursue careers that better their communities (like teaching or journalism) would start out as liberal. But if you were to look at their actions they apparently quickly fall in line with the corporate culture they depend on.

This study shows (what we knew) that the media relies on conservative sources and memes (such as those propagated by conservative blogs):

Table 3 Blogs read by the elite media
Number of elite media readers
Number of media mentions
Andrew Sullivan (Daily Dish) 22 78
Glenn Reynolds (InstaPundit) 11 11
Mickey Kaus (Kausfiles) 7 16
Joshua Micah Marshall (Talking Point Memo) 5 12
National Reviewâ€™s Corner 4 n/a
Daniel W. Drezner (danieldrezner.com) 4 3
James Romenesko (Media News) 4 13
J. Bradford DeLong (Semi-Daily Journal) 3 4
Eugene Volokh (The Volokh Conspiracy) 3 8
Atrios (Eschaton) 2 3
Markos Moulitsas ZÃºniga (Daily Kos) 2 4
Howard Bashman (How Appealing) 2 1

Respondents were coded as â€œeliteâ€ based on their employer. They included prominent newspapers (The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Christian Science Monitor), news networks (ABC, CBS, CNN), wire services (Associated Press, Bloomberg, Reuters), and prominent opinion magazines (The New Republic, Weekly Standard, National Review, Time, Newsweek, Foreign Affairs). Of the 140 respondents, 33 were from elite outlets

If you add the Drudge Report and Mark Halperin- two mainstays- journalists are getting huge amounts of their own information from avowedly conservative sources.

By: no2liberals

no2liberals — Wed, 19 Mar 2008 15:33:39 +0000

Another of those knock me over with a feather moments.
Dangit Robbie, I’m getting tired of picking myself off of the floor with your posts.
/henh

By: Sailorcurt

Sailorcurt — Wed, 19 Mar 2008 15:17:12 +0000

The majority of nationally ranked journalists â€” 53 percent â€” described themselves as moderate

The interesting thing is that they tend to live in an insulated world. Their views perfectly match the vast majority of those around them, so they smugly consider themselves “moderate”. If their views were compared to the broader cross-section of Americans, I seriously doubt that they would fall anywhere near the middle of the political spectrum.

By: Preston

Preston — Wed, 19 Mar 2008 14:58:02 +0000

So become a journalist.