Two University of Chicago researchers recently measured ideological
segregation on the Web - the idea that in this new media age, people
can avoid news outlets that challenge their ideological
presuppositions. Their report, "Ideological Segregation Online and Offline [1]," tracked how people of different political views move around the Internet.
One
finding: The New York Times is a liberal newspaper. Or at least its
readership is the most liberal of any of the news outlets studied that
held themselves out as an "objective" news source.
Included on
Table 3 (page 34 of the report) were the purportedly objective print
outlets like U.S. News & World Report, Time, Newsweek, USA Today,
The Wall Street Journal, and The New York Times.
Only 33% of
the Times readers were conservative, meaning of all the "objective"
publications it came in dead last for conservative appeal. Newsweek was
closest, at 56%, while both of the other newspapers, USA Today and The
Wall Street Journal, swamped the Times: 68% of
the readership of both papers are conservative.
Throw in the
three broadcast networks, the three big cable networks (Fox News,
MSNBC, and CNN) and PBS, and the New York Times still came in dead last
for the share of its audience that called itself conservative. Even the
left-wing MSNBC boasts a viewership 62% conservative. Not surprisingly,
Fox News leads that tally: Eighty-one percent of its viewers are
conservative.
The report summarized the results on page 17:
Readers of the New Yorker and the Atlantic are relatively liberal, while readers of Barron's are relatively conservative. Readers of the New York Times print edition are substantially more liberal than those of USA Today or the Wall Street Journal. Quantitatively, offline audiences may be less polarized than some would have suspected. One fifth of Fox News' audience is liberal, and 33 percent of New York Times readers are conservative.
The
chasm isn't quite as wide online, but (citing Table 2, page 33) nytimes.com
still arrived in last place for conservative audience with 40%, with
CNN.com the closest "objective" media outlet at 54%. By comparison, 27
percent of readers of the far-left DailyKos site are conservative.
You can follow Times Watch on Twitter [2].