More Studies Confirm Liberal Media Bias

For the five people in America still not convinced that the media is biased toward the left, Bruce Bartlett has written a good column about it, citing several studies that confirm a liberal media bias:

A new poll from the Pew Research Center has raised again the issue of liberal bias in the media. A growing body of academic research at top universities supports it. Unfortunately, those in the major media still don’t get it and are unlikely to change their behavior, resulting in further declines in ratings and circulation….

This is the point of the Pew study. Whatever the media think about themselves, there is simply no denying that a high percentage of Americans perceive a liberal bias. The credibility of every single major media outlet has fallen sharply among conservatives and Republicans, while falling much less among liberals and Democrats….

One consequence is that conservatives are gravitating toward those outlets that are perceived as being less biased toward them. These include Fox News, talk radio and the Internet. Ironically, academic studies view these not as conservative, but as objective. Apparently, the effect of having a rightward tilt only has the effect of moving “conservative” outlets to the middle, owing to the extreme left-wing bias of the dominant media.

It’s unclear which Pew study Bartlett’s referring to, but it’s probably this one. He also cites a study done by Tim Grosedose of UCLA and Jeff Milyo of the University of Chicago (PDF version). Follow this link to an article about it. The Grosedose-Milyo study concludes there is a significant liberal media bias, and that the Drudge Report and “Special Report” on Fox News are “closest to the true center of the political spectrum, despite being widely viewed as conservative.”

Interesting. You don’t need studies; all you need is a pair of eyes to see the bias, but it’s good to have actual research to cite when you’re trying to convince seemingly blind liberal friends of the media’s leftward tilt.

That leads us to this question: Why do liberals flock to the journalism profession in the first place? Bartlett cites yet another study, this one done by Professor David Baron, an economics professor at Stanford University. Bartlett doesn’t name this study, either, but my guess is “Persistent Media Bias” (PDF version). Professor Baron surmises that liberals are willing to accept less pay to exercise their bias.

With all of these studies being paid for by liberal universities, one thing liberals can’t do is claim “conservative bias” in the research methods. But they probably do anyway.