[Media-watch] Report on [US] newsroom bias/ Editors defend coverage - Editor and Publisher - 25 and 26 July 2004

[Julie-ann Davies]

Full report/package available at :
http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/magazine/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1000585956
JA
__________________

http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1000585439

'E&P' Offers Special Report on Newsroom Bias, As Editors Defend Coverage



By E&P Staff

Published: July 25, 2004 11:10 PM EST

NEW YORK In a special report published Monday, E&P offers an unprecedented
look at alleged "liberal bias" in the newsroom, based on dozens of
interviews with editors, reporters, media critics, academics, pollsters, and
other observers.

The August cover story, "The Liberal Newsroom: Myth or Reality?", concludes
that, indeed, there are more liberals than conservatives at newspapers -- 
but an overwhelmingly number of editors reject calls for any "ideological
affirmative action" program.

Many conservatives, such as columnist Cal Thomas, also do not favor media
outlets hiring a "quota" of those leaning to the right, even as they
continue to criticize the alleged liberal tilt of the press.

One problem is that relatively few conservatives seem to be interested in
working for newspapers. "It's just not the kind of thing conservatives do,"
Thomas said. But others, such as media critic William McGowan, claim
conservative applicants "get stopped at the door."

Editors, often hit hard in "the bias war," admit there is no such thing as
an "objective" reporter, but they argue strongly that their newspapers do
provide balanced journalism. Their newsrooms, they argue, overcome political
beliefs with strict adherence to "professionalism."

The vast majority, in fact, say they don't even know the ideological makeup
of their newsrooms, and that they never ask job applicants about their
political views.

Many editors, however, admit they "live lives different from our readers,"
as one put it, and this causes a "values gap." For example, Frank Newport,
editor in chief of The Gallup Poll, said of journalists: "They don't go to
church."

The entire cover package, which includes the main article written by Joe
Strupp, columns by Editor Greg Mitchell and Jay Rosen, and separate stories
on journalism schools, the Web newsroom, opinion columnists and political
cartoonists, is now available to all site visitors.

Among the dozens interviewed for the report were more than two dozen editors
from a cross-section of papers, journalism school deans such as Nicholas
Lemann, and outside observers such as John Leo, Robert Lichter and Andrew
Kohut.

However, even as more and more conservatives charge that the press leans
left, "a growing number of liberals," E&P reports, now feel that much of the
media "slants to the right."

This leads E&P to pose the question: Is there really more "biased" coverage
today, or simply that "more people today, left and right, are looking for
news coverage that validates their world view"? E&P labels this "information
segregation."

The special report features an illustration by this year's Pulitzer
Prize-winning cartoonist Matt Davies. The cover of the issue features a
photograph of a reporter at his cubicle, which holds copies of books by Al
Franken and Bill Clinton, a poster of Michael Moore, a Kerry-Edwards bumper
sticker, and MoveOn.org on his computer screen, with the caption, "Who, me?"

Other findings:

* One area where there are more conservatives than liberals: among opinion
columnists, with George Will and Cal Thomas in more papers than anyone.

* People who work at news sites on the Web, contrary to the stereotype, are
no more liberal than their counterparts at the "old media."

* A major trend uncovered by E&P: Journalism school graduates are
increasingly entering the field of public relations, leading even more
conservatives away from newsrooms.