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89% Voted for Clinton
One item today, but first a bit
of housekeeping. In order to keep everyone's e-mail address a bit more
private as well as to eliminate the huge pile of names at the beginning of
each message, I'm blind copying this message to everyone except the seven
people who don't have a personal address and get their mail forwarded
internally from a general company address.
Now, for the news of the day: The Freedom Forum
(Arlington Va division) released on Wednesday a 218 page report titled
"Partners and Adversaries: The Contentious Connection Between
Congress & the Media." It was written by Elaine Povich, a former
Chicago Tribune reporter.
Buried in the appendix are some very interesting
findings in "a few final questions for classification purposes
only." These were posed to two sets of people. First, 139 Washington
bureau chiefs and congressional correspondents (newspapers, wire services
and TV networks) who completed a 58 question survey by mail in
November-December 1995. Second, the a very similar survey was
completed by 100 newspaper editors (half with circulation over and half
under 75,000).
Washington reporter results are first followed by
the editors in ():
Q: "How would you
characterize your political orientation?"
Liberal: 22% (9%)
Liberal to moderate: 39% (23%)
Moderate: 30% (35%)
Moderate to conservative: 7% (19%)
Conservative: 2% (6%)
Q: "What is your current
political affiliation?"
Republican: 4% (14%)
Democrat: 50% (31%)
Independent: 37% (39%)
Other: 9% (7%)
Q: "Did you vote for Bill
Clinton, George Bush, Ross Perot, or some other candidate?"
Bill Clinton: 89% (60%)
George Bush: 7% (22%)
Ross Perot: 2% (4%)
Other: 2% (9%)
I
realize not all total 100%, but I'm getting this off their report so I
would guess some people refused to answer. Previous surveys have shown
that minorities and women are more liberal, but that's not at play here:
of the Washington reporters 92% are white, six percent black, two percent
Asian and one percent Hispanic. Gender-wise, 71% male, 29% female.
The editors are even more white and male.
So does this help prove liberal bias. Of course
not, Povich told the April 18 Washington Times: "One of the things
about being a professional is that you attempt to leave your personal
feelings aside as you do your work. What I think is true, more people who
are of a liberal persuasion go into reporting simply because they believe
in the ethics and ideals."
The key
word is "attempt." All for now, you ethically-challenged
non-idealists.
--
Brent Baker
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