Monday, December 19, 2005

What media bias? II

Despite claims that there is no media bias, out comes this study from UCLA. Apparently, the media leans left! I know, I was shocked too! But catch this :

Of the 20 major media outlets studied, 18 scored left of center, with CBS' "Evening News," The New York Times and the Los Angeles Times ranking second, third and fourth most liberal behind the news pages of The Wall Street Journal.

Only Fox News' "Special Report With Brit Hume" and The Washington Times scored right of the average U.S. voter.


Note that the above didn't say ALL of Fox News, only Brit Hume's hour. ONE hour, out of 24, for those keeping count. Granted, O'Riley and Hannity are conservative, but those are not NEWS programs (and, even if you want to throw those into the mix, that only adds another 2 hour of conservative news to what is so loudly accused of being a shrill from Conservatives.)

Although Hume's show is right of Center, it is no further "off" the center than the other major medias:

The fourth most centrist outlet was "Special Report With Brit Hume" on Fox News, which often is cited by liberals as an egregious example of a right-wing outlet. While this news program proved to be right of center, the study found ABC's "World News Tonight" and NBC's "Nightly News" to be left of center. All three outlets were approximately equidistant from the center, the report found.

"If viewers spent an equal amount of time watching Fox's 'Special Report' as ABC's 'World News' and NBC's 'Nightly News,' then they would receive a nearly perfectly balanced version of the news," said Milyo, an associate professor of economics and public affairs at the University of Missouri at Columbia.


Also surprising was the finding that the Wall Street Journal leans left as well. Except for the editorial pages, the reporting in the WSJ was found to be left of the average voter.

H/t: InDC