Will this presidential election be the most important in American history?
If you needed mathematical proof that the mainstream media is biased to favor Democrats, here it is.
A mere 7 percent of journalists identify as Republicans, and when they do give money to political campaigns they usually donate to Democrats, lending evidence to Republican presidential candidates’ claims that they are facing a hostile audience when they deal with the press.
… And self-proclaimed Democratic journalists outnumber Republicans by 4-to-1, according to research by Lars Willnat and David Weaver, professors of journalism at Indiana University. They found 28 percent of journalists call themselves Democrats, while just 7 percent call themselves Republicans — though both numbers are down from the 1970s. Those identifying as independent have grown.
Among Washington correspondents, the ones who dominate national political coverage, it’s even more skewed, said Tim Groseclose, author of “Left Turn: How Liberal Media Bias Distorts the American Mind.” More than 90 percent of D.C. journalists vote Democratic, with an even higher number giving to Democrats or liberal-leaning political action committees, the author said.
While these numbers are problematic, it’s also worth asking the question: whatever happened to professionalism? It’s one thing to have a political opinion- we’re all human. To assume that journalists are somehow immune to political preferences would be naive.
However, political preferences shouldn’t cloud a journalist’s ability to do his or her job and report the facts. The last Republican debate train wreck on CNBC was an example of moderators mistaking themselves for political activists.
Opinion journalism is one thing. But when progressive reporters cherry pick facts and reverse-engineer stories to fit their political agendas and try to play it off as The News, that’s called propaganda.
