Mainstream media

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Controversy exists over the meaning and definition of the terms mainstream media (MSM)[1]. Some consider the mainstream media to consist primarily of those media organs that existed in the United States of America prior to 1987, and especially any of those media organs that continue to exist today. Others take a view that the term 'mainstream', no matter the context, simply refers to 'that which is most popular'.

Statistical data

In 2008, John Perazzo, writing in the FrontPageMagazine.com, presented major findings of research[2][3] regarding the underlying beliefs of news media professionals.

  • Between 90 and 97 percent of news media professionals have consistently affirmed themselves to be pro-choice on the matter of abortion. More than half of the respondents said that abortion should be legal under any and all circumstances.[4]
  • Between 6 and 8 percent attended religious services regularly, a tiny fraction of the corresponding rate for the public at large.R[5]
  • Fully 81 percent of news media professionals favor affirmative action in business and academia.[6]
  • More than half of respondents said that adultery could be acceptable under certain circumstances; only 15 percent said it was always wrong.[7]
  • Between 67 and 76 percent were opposed to prayer being permitted in public schools.[8]
  • In 1964, 94 percent of media professionals voted for Democrat Lyndon Johnson over Republican Barry Goldwater.[9]
  • In 1968, 86 percent voted for Democrat Hubert Humphrey over Republican Richard Nixon.[10]
  • In 1972, 81 percent voted for Democrat George McGovern over the incumbent Nixon.[11]
  • In 1976, 81 percent voted for Democrat Jimmy Carter over Republican Gerald Ford.[12]
  • In 1980, twice as many cast their ballots for Carter rather than Republican Ronald Reagan.[13]
  • In 1984, 58 percent supported Democrat Walter Mondale, whom Reagan defeated in the biggest landslide in presidential election history.[14]
  • In 1988, White House correspondents from various major newspapers, television networks, magazines, and news services supported Democrat Michael Dukakis over Republican George H.W. Bush by a ratio of 12-to-1.[15]
  • In the 1992 Presidential election, among Washington bureau chiefs and congressional correspondents, the disparity was 89 percent vs. 7 percent, in Clinton’s favor over the incumbent Bush.[16]
  • All told, White House correspondents during the late ’80s and early ’90s voted for Democrats at 7 times the rate at which they voted for Republicans.[17]
  • In a 2004, poll of campaign journalists, those based outside of Washington, D.C., supported Democrat John Kerry over Republican George W. Bush by a ratio of 3-to-1. Those based inside the Beltway favored Kerry by a 12-to-1 ratio[18]
  • In a 2004 nationwide poll of 300 newspaper and television journalists, 52 percent supported Kerry, while 19 percent supported Bush.[19]
  • In a 2008 survey of 144 journalists nationwide, journalists were 8 times likelier to make campaign contributions to Democrats than to Republicans.[20]
  • A 2008 Investors Business Daily study put the campaign donation ratio at 11.5-to-1, in favor of Democrats. In terms of total dollars given, the ratio was 15-to-1.[21]
  • In a 1988 survey of business reporters, 54 percent of respondents identified themselves as Democrats, 9 percent as Republicans.[22]
  • In a 1992 poll of journalists working for newspapers, magazines, radio, and television, 44 percent called themselves Democrats, 16 percent Republicans.[23]
  • In a 1996 poll of 1,037 reporters at 61 newspapers, 61 percent identified themselves as Democrats, 15 percent as Republicans.[24]
  • In a 2001 Kaiser Family Foundation poll, media professionals were nearly 7 times likelier to call themselves Democrats rather than Republicans[25]
  • In a 1981 study of 240 journalists nationwide, 65 percent identified themselves as liberals, 17 percent as conservatives.[26]
  • In a 1983 study of news reporters, executives, and staffers, 32 percent identified themselves as liberals, 11 percent as conservatives.[27]
  • In a 1992 study of more than 1,400 journalists, 44 percent identified themselves as liberals, 22 percent as conservatives.[28]
  • In a 1996 study of Washington bureau chiefs and congressional correspondents, 61 percent identified themselves as liberals, 9 percent as conservatives.[29]
  • In a 1996 study of 1,037 journalists, the respondents identified themselves as liberals 4 times more frequently than as conservatives. Among journalists working for newspapers with circulations exceeding 50,000, the ratio of liberals to conservatives was 5.4 to 1.[30]
  • In a 2001 Kaiser Family Foundation study of media professionals, the ratio of self-identified liberals to conservatives was 4.2 to 1.[31]
  • In a 2004 Pew Research Center study of journalists and media executives, the ratio of self-identified liberals to conservatives was 4.9 to 1.[32]
  • In a 2005 University of Connecticut study of 300 journalists, the liberal-to-conservative ratio was 2.8 to 1.[33]
  • In a 2005 Annenberg Public Policy Center poll of nearly 700 journalists, the liberal-to-conservative ratio was 3.4 to 1.[34]
  • In a 2007 Pew Research Center study of journalists and news executives, the ratio was 4 liberals for each conservative.[35]

A similar landmark study was conducted in 1990, examining the political leanings of the individuals, rather than the organizations, who were most often cited or quoted as experts on various topics in the news. The examination showed that on the subject of welfare and related issues, liberal experts were quoted 75 percent of the time, conservatives 22 percent. On consumer issues, the liberal-conservative ratio was 63 percent to 22 percent. On environmental issues, the ratio was 79 percent to 18 percent. And regarding nuclear energy, the ratio was 77 percent to 20 percent.[36]

The decidedly liberal majority in news media is similar to that seen in American colleges and faculty, which most journalists were influenced by. A major study showed that 50% of American college faculty identified themselves as Democrats and 11% as Republicans (with 33% being Independent, and 5% identifying themselves with another party). 72% described themselves as "to the left of center," including 18% who were strongly left. Only 15% described themselves as right of center, including only 3% who were "strongly right."[37][38]

Many conservative and a few liberal commentators have remarked on the seeming extraordinary favor shown toward Barack Obama during his candidacy, and presidency. A 2008 comprehensive analysis conducted by the Media Research Center[1] of every evening news report by the NBC, ABC and CBS television networks, showed that positive stories about Obama since he came to national prominence outnumbered negative stories 7 to 1.[39] During the Presidents candidacy, MSNBC Hardball host Chris Matthews stated, "Yeah, well, you know what? I want to do everything I can to make this thing work, this new presidency work,..." In November 2008, Mark Halperin of Time and ABC News criticized the media coverage of the 2008 presidential race, stating, "It's the most disgusting failure of people in our business since the Iraq war." "It was extreme bias, extreme pro-Obama coverage."[40]

A more recent remark by Newsweek editor Evan Thomas is seen by some to confirm the lack of objectivity and tendency to give undue exaltation they see the main stream media often displaying toward the new leader of the United states. Referring to his perception of the President after his recent speeches overseas, Thomas stated,

"I mean, in a way Obama's standing above the country, above the world. He's sort of God."[2][41]

Fairness Doctrine

In 1987, the Federal Communications Commission voted 4-0 to revoke, and cancel their enforcement of, the Fairness Doctrine. That doctrine mandated that if any opinion considered "controversial" were ever discussed on the public airwaves, the station over which that opinion aired was required to give equal time to any person wishing to reply. However, the FCC never set a standard about interpretations of current events that might be disputable, nor even examined that issue.

With the revocation of the Fairness Doctrine, radio and television stations were now permitted to air any opinion or interpretation of the news, no matter how "controversial," without regard to the giving of "equal time."

On August 1, 1988, a new radio commentator named Rush Limbaugh began broadcasting in national syndication.

List of mainstream media organs

Some consider the mainstream media to consist of the following outlets:

Newspapers

News Syndication Agencies

Television

Some conservatives consider Fox News to not be "mainstream media", because they frequently present a different, often more fair and balanced viewpoint to the above news outlets. One example given is that in 2007, the Democratic presidential candidates have declared they will not appear on presidential debates hosted by Fox News, due to their own bias, but they will appear on other supposed MSM news outlets.

Most Americans consider Fox News very much part of the Mainstream Media, as, according to ratings organisation Nielsen:

  • Fox News has 9 of the 10 most viewed shows on Cable TV News (as of Dec 2006)
  • Fox News mean prime-time viewing figures are triple that of MSNBC, and double that of CNN, and exceed the total ratings of CNN, MSNBC and CNBC combined.
  • "In 2006, more than half the people watching cable news were watching Fox News" [43]


CNN

In 2006 CNN.com has an article from columnist R. Emmett Tyrell Jr. entitled "Tyrell: Goodbye MSM... and good riddance!" [44] The article talks about the alternative press vs the MSM:

So we hear this week that President George W. Bush is taking delight in the spread of the "alternative press" (read conservatives on the Internet, in talk radio, in print, and at Fox) and the gentle detumesence of "mainstream media" (read liberal media, or more precisely, Democratic media). Well I join him in his satisfaction.


'Alternative Media'

Differing opinions also exist over the definition of a similar term - Alternative Media. Although some consider, for example, Rush Limbaugh's launch to be the birth of 'alternative media', so too do the left consider publications like The Nation to be 'alternative media.'[45] In fact, many would view the Village Voice group to be the most widely published 'alternative media' outlet in the United States.

By whatever definition, most media watchers would classify as "alternative media" any media organ that is primarily hosted on the Internet rather than printed and delivered or mailed to subscribers. The alternative media is not exclusively conservative. It includes liberal organs as well. Some writers on these organs have suggested that the mainstream media has a conservative bias--by which they actually mean that mainstream-media organs are not as revolutionary, or as radical, in their thinking as are the writers themselves.[46][47][48]

At least one MSM organ, CBS News, attempted in 2006[49] to describe what a particular alternative-media segment (i.e., blogs) thinks of the MSM:

“ They don't believe that you are unbiased, objective, fair a lot of times. And so what they want is they want to read a lot of different sources themselves. because they don't trust the mainstream media..that would be [you]. ”

It is worth noting that liberal blog activity on the internet is declining after the election of Barack Hussein Obama [50]. This shows that the distaste for bias in the liberal MSM is spreading to the alternative media.

See Also

References and notes

  1. ↑ Both conservatives and liberals use the acronym MSM to describe the mainstream media
  2. ↑ In the Tank: A Statistical Analysis of Media Bias By John Perazzo FrontPageMagazine.com | Friday, October 31, 2008
  3. ↑ Mostly from Media Research Center, The Liberal Media Exposed
  4. ↑ Robert Lichter and Stanley Rothman’s 1981 survey of 240 journalists at top media outlets; Los Angeles Times 1985 survey of 2,700 journalists at 621 American newspapers; Robert Lichter and Stanley Rothman’s 1986 study of the media’s attitudes and their influence on society, as published in the National Federation for Decency’s Journal; Indiana University journalism professors David Weaver and G. Cleveland Wilhoit’s 1992 survey of 1,410 newspaper, magazine, television, and radio journalists; Stanley Rothman and Amy Black’s 1995 study of the media elite.
  5. ↑ obert Lichter and Stanley Rothman’s 1986 study of the media’s attitudes and their influence on society, Op. cit.; David Weaver and G. Cleveland Wilhoit’s 1992 survey of 1,410 journalists, Op. cit.; Annenberg Public Policy Center and Annenberg Foundation Trust’s 2005 survey of 673 journalists from newspapers, television, magazines, radio, and Internet; Pew Research Center’s 2008 survey of 222 journalists and news executives.
  6. ↑ Los Angeles Times 1985 survey of 2,700 journalists at 621 American newspapers, Op. cit.
  7. ↑ Robert Lichter and Stanley Rothman’s 1981 survey of 240 journalists at top media outlets, Op. cit.
  8. ↑ Los Angeles Times 1985 survey of 2,700 journalists at 621 American newspapers; Journalist and Financial Reporting’s 1988 poll of 151 business reporters from 30 major publications.
  9. ↑ Robert Lichter and Stanley Rothman’s 1981 survey of 240 journalists at top media outlets, Op. cit.
  10. ↑ Ibid.
  11. ↑ Ibid.
  12. ↑ Ibid.
  13. ↑ California State University survey of reporters from the 50 largest U.S. newspapers.
  14. ↑ Los Angeles Times 1985 survey of 2,700 journalists at 621 American newspapers, Op. cit.
  15. ↑ U.S. News & World Report writer Kenneth Walsh’s 1995 study of 28 White House correspondents.
  16. ↑ 1996 Freedom Forum survey of 139 Washington bureau chiefs and congressional correspondents, Op. cit.
  17. ↑ U.S. News & World Report writer Kenneth Walsh’s 1995 study of 28 White House correspondents, Op. cit.
  18. ↑ .New York Times columnist John Tierney’s 2004 survey of 153 campaign journalists covering the 2004 Democratic National Convention in Boston, Massachusetts.
  19. ↑ University of Connecticut Department of Public Policy’s 2005 survey of 300 television and newspaper journalists nationwide.
  20. ↑ MSNBC investigative reporter Bill Dedman’s study of the campaign contributions of 144 journalists.
  21. ↑ William Tate’s July 2008 report in Investor’s Business Daily.
  22. ↑ Journalist and Financial Reporting’s 1988 poll of 151 business reporters, Op. cit.
  23. ↑ David Weaver and G. Cleveland Wilhoit’s 1992 survey of 1,410 journalists, Op. cit.
  24. ↑ American Society of Newspaper editors 1996 survey of 1,037 reporters at 61 newspapers of all sizes nationwide.
  25. ↑ .Kaiser Family Foundation 1996 poll of 301 “media professionals,” 300 “policymakers,” and 1,206 members of the general public.
  26. ↑ Robert Lichter and Stanley Rothman’s 1986 study of the media’s attitudes and their influence on society, Op. cit.
  27. ↑ David Weaver and G. Cleveland Wilhoit’s 1982-83 study of more than 1,000 reporters, executives, and staffers nationwide.
  28. ↑ David Weaver and G. Cleveland Wilhoit’s 1992 survey of 1,410 journalists, Op. cit.
  29. ↑ 1996 Freedom Forum survey of 139 Washington bureau chiefs and congressional correspondents, Op. cit.
  30. ↑ American Society of Newspaper editors 1996 survey, Op. cit.
  31. ↑ Kaiser Family Foundation 1996 poll of 301 “media professionals,” 300 “policymakers,” and 1,206 members of the general public, Op. cit.
  32. ↑ Pew Research Center 2004 poll of 547 journalists and media executives, including 247 at national-level media outlets.
  33. ↑ University of Connecticut Department of Public Policy’s 2005 survey of 300 television and newspaper journalists nationwide, Op. cit.
  34. ↑ Annenberg Public Policy Center and Annenberg Foundation Trust’s 2005 survey of 673 journalists, Op. cit.
  35. ↑ Pew Research Center’s 2007 survey of 222 journalists and news executives at national outlets.
  36. ↑ Robert Lichter, Stanley Rothman, and Linda Lichter, The Media Elite: America’s New Power Brokers (New York: Hastings House, 1990).
  37. ↑ North American Academic Study Survey (NAASS) of students, faculty and administrators at colleges and universities in the United States and Canada 1999. The Berkeley Electronic Press
  38. ↑ Conservatives: Underrepresented in Academia?
  39. ↑ Study: ABC, NBC, CBS strongly support Obama August 20, 2008
  40. ↑ Political Punch, November 24, 2008 8:06 AM
  41. ↑ june 5, 2009, MSNBC interview with Chris Matthews
  42. ↑ The inclusion of The Wall Street Journal might strike some media observers as strange, until one remembers that, though its editorial board is conservative on most issues (except for immigration), its city room is definitely liberal in orientation and coverage of the news.
  43. ↑ Authors unknown. "The State of the News Media 2007." Project for Excellence in Journalism, 2007. Retrieved August 2, 2007.
  44. ↑ Tyrell, R. Emmet. "Goodbye MSM... and good riddance!" Creators' Syndicate, 2006. Retrieved August 2, 2007, from CNN.
  45. ↑ Albert, Michael. "Alternative Media: What Makes Alternative Media Alternative?" Z Magazine. Retrieved August 2, 2007.
  46. ↑ Dreier, Peter. "For a Brief Moment, The Media Rediscover Poverty." AlterNet.org, July 26, 2007. Retrieved August 2, 2007.
  47. ↑ O'Connor, Rory. "The Future of Citizen Journalism. AlterNet.org, July 3, 2007. Retrieved August 2, 2007.
  48. ↑ Rampton, Sheldon. "Has the Internet Changed the Propaganda Model?" AlterNet.org, June 22, 2007. Retrieved August 2, 2007.
  49. ↑ Pogue, David. "[http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/07/09/sunday/main1786520.shtml?source=search_story Brave New Blogging World: David Pogue Ventures Into The Blogosphere]." CBSNews.com, July 9, 2006. Retrieved August 2, 2007.
  50. ↑ http://bloggasm.com/blog-traffic-for-liberal-blogs-down-58-in-three-months-following-election-conservative-blogs-down-36

External Links

http://www.mediaresearch.org/biasbasics/biasbasics1.asp

http://newsroom.ucla.edu/portal/ucla/Media-Bias-Is-Real-Finds-UCLA-6664.aspx

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