Probing 'Liberal' Bias

By: Greg Mitchell How "liberal" are the nation's newsrooms? What does "liberal" mean, anyway? Should editors embark on an ideological affirmative action program? All of these questions, and more, grow out of the recent Pew survey that seemed to sustain arguments that newsrooms tilt left, in composition if not coverage.

Or is this mainly bunk? In the months ahead, E&P will attempt to answer all of these questions, and many others, in this very contested, and very important, area.

Conservatives have had a field day with the Pew results, which were announced on May 23. John Leo of U.S. News & World Report wrote a particularly caustic column. Some editors have hinted that they will now go out of their way to hire political "minorities."

It was amusing, however, to hear Fox News fulminate about the survey when a second Pew study found that more than half of that network's viewers describe themselves as "conservative" and only 13% liberal. This couldn't betray some political slant at Fox? Or maybe their typical viewer tunes in because they think Bill or Brit is sexy.

Some conservatives charge that the liberal media has ignored proof that there is a liberal media. That's not exactly true. E&P was the first to spotlight the Pew newsroom findings, just minutes after they were released, and our story was picked up far and wide.

For the record, the results showed that newsroom personnel (including newspapers, TV and radio) at local outlets self-described their political leanings this way: 23% liberal, 12% conservative, with the vast majority "moderate." The numbers moved even more to the left at national outlets, with liberal strength growing since the last survey in 1995. Among the public at large, the split is quite different, with 20% calling themselves liberal and 33% conservative.

Still, it's unclear what it all means, and rather than say much more now, we've chosen to launch our own probe behind the numbers. Here's just a few of the questions we look forward to addressing:

* How accurate are the Pew numbers? It is not purported to be as scientific as Gallup, with no claims of accuracy "plus or minus X percent." The sample size, 547, is small but Pew did seek out newsrooms of varying size, in different parts of the country, and interview employees at several different levels. What do other surveys show?

* What does "moderate" mean? Many conservatives have charged that anyone calling him- or herself a moderate is actually a liberal, further skewing the poll to the left. So does moderate mean John McCain or Hillary Clinton? The survey did not ask enough issue or values questions to really answer that.

* If the Pew numbers are accurate, why are there so many more liberals than conservatives in newsrooms? Is it due to a certain do-gooder impulse among journalists in general? Or, as some charge, a bias in hiring: liberals won't hire conservatives? Is there a certain amount of "right flight" after conservatives fail to advance or feel uncomfortable among their peers? Several top editors have acknowledged, for example, that there are relatively few "pro-lifers" in the average newsroom.

* If conservatives were made to feel more welcome, would it make any difference? What if very few of that political persuasion want to become grubby, underpaid, widely dissed reporters? What exactly is the conservative hiring pool out there?

* What would a survey of j-school students show? Are they overwhelmingly liberal already, or does the faculty indoctrinate them, or perhaps the liberal ones feed into newsrooms while the conservatives drift to other forms of journalism or related areas?

* Much has been made of the "values gap" allegedly revealed by the Pew survey's few questions in that area. For example, only 15% of newsroomers, according to Pew, believe you have to believe in God to be a "truly moral" person, while 60% of the public feels that way -- a stark divide. Is this to be lamented -- or is the ability to be non-judgmental actually a quality that should be encouraged in newsrooms?

* No matter what the answers to all of the above reveal: At the local level, does ideology intrude on coverage and, if so, how? Forget about Peter Jennings and Dan Rather in New York. What's going on in Peoria?

One guarantee: We will be calling Peoria to find out.