ABC News Veteran: Most Journalists See Themselves as 'Right Down the Middle'

Time magazine's Mark Halperin [1], formerly the political director at ABC News, announced on MSNBC's Morning Joe on Tuesday that he believed that most reporters operated under the belief that they are not biased. Morning Joe co-host Mika Brzezinski, herself a veteran of CBS News, quickly agreed with Halperin that journalists could not see their own bias.

Host Joe Scarborough seemed incredulous: "Most people that you hang out with in the media think that they're, like, right down the middle?"

"I think that that's still the dominant view," Halperin insisted. "Yes, I agree with that. Yes," Brzezinski quickly echoed.

NewsBusters' senior contributor Mark Finkelstein caught the exchange [2] during the 6am ET hour on MSNBC. Host Joe Scarborough began with a question to Halperin:

JOE SCARBOROUGH: "So you're saying that most people in the mainstream media don't admit that the press is biased?"

TIME'S MARK HALPERIN: I don't think so. You take a survey, maybe, around the news room -

MIKA BRZEZINSKI: No, they don't admit it, I agree [with] that.

SCARBOROUGH: Because Mark Halperin in '04 had said that most people in the media are liberal, and this is an obvious thing. But you're saying - I had said that most people accept it, but, you know, you do your best to be fair and down the middle even if most media people are left of center. But you say that most people that you hang out with in the media think that they're, like, right down the middle?

HALPERIN: I think that that's still the dominant view.

BRZEZINSKI: Yes, I agree with that. Yes.

HALPERIN: I think that's still the dominant view.

BRZEZINSKI: Absolutely.

-Rich Noyes is Research Director at the Media Research Center.