Exhibit 2-28: Seeing Liberal Bias in the News (2013)
A trio of polls conducted during 2013 showed that, by a wide margin, many more Americans see a liberal bias in the news media than a tilt in favor of conservatives. Even a sizeable percentage of self-identified Democrats seemed to concede this point, with 36 percent telling the Pew Research Center that the media are liberal, and 38 percent of Democrats telling Rasmussen they shared the views of the “average reporter.”
KEY FINDINGS:
A Rasmussen poll of 1,000 likely voters conducted in February 2013 found two in five voters (41%) “think the average media reporter is more liberal than they are,” compared with just 18 percent “who feel the average reporters is more conservative than they are.”
Nearly seven out of ten Republicans (69%) think the average reporter is more liberal than they are, while a plurality of Democrats (38%) think their views are about the same as the average reporter and 30 percent say the typical reporter is more conservative than they are.
A Pew Research Center poll of 1,480 adults conducted in July 2013 found a plurality of Americans (46%) say “news organizations are best described as liberal,” compared to 26 percent who say they are conservative.
Echoing Rasmussen, Pew found a large majority of Republicans (65%) described the media as liberal, while the same survey showed “Democrats are divided: about as many say the press is liberal (36%) as conservative (37%).”
A September 2013 poll of 1,510 adults by Gallup found “far more Americans say the media are too liberal than too conservative, 46 percent vs. 13 percent, as was the case in 2011, and every year since Gallup has been tracking this trend.”
According to Gallup, “perceptions of a liberal media bias are particularly strong among Republicans and conservatives, with 74% and 73%, respectively, saying the media are too liberal.” At the same time, Gallup found, “most Democrats (57%) call it ‘just about right.’”
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