“When the responses to all questions on social political issues are combined, the newspaper staffs provided ‘liberal’ answers 68 percent of the time and ‘conservative’ answers 22 percent of the time. Readers provided ‘liberal’ answers 43 percent of the time and ‘conservative’ answers 37 percent of the time – which makes the public much less liberal than the newspaper journalists,” Shaw concluded.
While some of the questions posed by the Times in 1985 – such as soliciting opinions about South African divestment – are not especially relevant today, many tap into the same liberal-conservative divisions that characterize today’s politics.
Only once, when asked whether they favored “government efforts to make reductions in the income gap between rich and poor,” was the public’s response more liberal than that of the press – although on that question news staffs still supported the liberal stance by a 50 to 39 percent margin. On every other policy issue the Times asked about – including abortion, prayer in school, affirmative action, defense spending and the death penalty – journalists embraced the liberal position more readily than the public at large.
When it came to issues such as abortion, homosexuality and affirmative action, the media elite revealed solidly liberal views. Nine out of ten journalists believed a woman should have a legal right to an abortion and eight out of ten backed ‘strong affirmative action for blacks.’ At the same time, Lichter’s research found that ’75 percent disagree that homosexuality is wrong, and an even larger proportion, 85 percent, uphold the right of homosexuals to teach in public schools.’
The conclusion that liberals dominate the national media is unassailable. Every major survey of journalists from 1970’s to the present day has found that reporters are more liberal on the issues, more likely to identify themselves as liberal, and more likely to vote for a liberal presidential candidate than the rest of the country.
