MYTH: The media is not biased. The media doesn’t favor the left or discriminate against the right. Media outlets like CBS, CNN, NBC, ABC, and MSNBC are all bipartisan.

REALITY: This is false. Various surveys and studies show that the media is biased against the right and in favor of the left. Studies show that media outlets like CBS, CNN, NBC, ABC, and MSNBC are all left-leaning outlets, that frequently have negative coverage against Republicans and Conservatives.

Not only are some of the biggest news outlets all left-leaning, but the total number of left-leaning media outlets significantly outnumber outlets on the right.

In addition, significantly more journalists identify as liberal compared to conservative. This is confirmed by voter registration data, surveys, and campaign donations.

These facts haven’t gone unnoticed. Various surveys show that many Americans recognize the left-wing bias in the news. This has led to very low trust in the media.

There is an overwhelming amount of data that shows the media is biased in favor of the left. The media is absolutely biased against the right.

(Check out all the studies below)

MEDIA OUTLETS ARE BIASED AGAINST THE RIGHT: PEW RESEARCH STUDY

A 2017 study, conducted by Pew Research, found that there was an overwhelmingly disproportionate amount of negative coverage in the first 60 days of Trump’s presidency. 62% of all news stories were negative compared to 5% that were positive. According to the study, “Compared with the first 60 days of the Clinton, Bush, and Obama presidencies, news outlets’ evaluations of Trump’s start in office were far more negative and less positive. About six-in-ten news stories about Trump’s first 60 days (62%) carried an overall negative assessment of his words or actions. That is about three times more negative than for Obama (20%) and roughly twice that of Bush and Clinton (28% each). Coverage was also far less positive, with just 5% of stories conveying an overall positive assessment of the president and the administration. This is in sharp contrast to Obama’s first days in 2009 when 42% of the stories offered an overall positive assessment. While the difference is less pronounced, coverage of Bush’s and Clinton’s early days was still at least four times as positive as Trump’s (22% and 27%, respectively).”

MEDIA OUTLETS ARE BIASED AGAINST THE RIGHT: MEDIA RESEARCH CENTER STUDY

An analysis conducted by the Media Research Center (MRC) found that, in June and July, 95% of media coverage of Trump was negative. The analysis also showed that there was significantly more negative coverage of Trump than Biden. According to the Media Research Center analysis, “From June 1 through July 31, the ABC, CBS and NBC evening newscasts focused 512 minutes of airtime on the President, or nine times more than the 58 minutes allotted to Biden… The extra airtime devoted to Trump consisted almost entirely of anchors and reporters criticizing the President. During these two months, our analysts documented 668 evaluative statements about the President, 95 percent of which (634) were negative, vs. a mere five percent (34) that were positive. Using the same methodology (fully described at the end of this article), we found very few evaluative statements about Joe Biden — just a dozen, two-thirds of which (67%) were positive.”

MEDIA OUTLETS ARE BIASED AGAINST THE RIGHT: SHORENSTEIN CENTER STUDY

A study, conducted by Professor Thomas E. Patterson of Harvard’s Kennedy School and the Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics, and Public Policy found that in the first 100 days of Trump’s presidency, 80% of news coverage was negative against Trump and his administration. Trump received far more negative coverage than Barack Obama, who only received 41% negative coverage. Media outlets like CBS, CNN, NBC, ABC, New York Times, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, ADR, Financial Times, and BBC had more negative coverage of Trump than positive coverage.

According to the study, “CNN and NBC’s coverage was the most unrelenting—negative stories about Trump outpaced positive ones by 13-to-1 on the two networks. Trump’s coverage on CBS also exceeded the 90 percent mark. Trump’s coverage exceeded the 80 percent level in The New York Times (87 percent negative) and The Washington Post (83 percent negative). The Wall Street Journal came in below that level (70 percent negative), a difference largely attributable to the Journal’s more frequent and more favorable economic coverage.”

Percentage of Negative Coverage Against Trump, by News Outlet
CNN: 97%
NBC: 97%
CBS: 91%
New York Times: 87%
Washington Post: 83%
Wall Street Journal: 70%
Fox: 52%
ADR (German News): 98%
Financial Times: 84%
BBC: 74%

(January 20-April 29, 2017)

Fox News was by far the fairest towards Trump, but even they had more negative coverage of Trump than positive coverage.

MAJORITY OF MEDIA OUTLETS LEAN LEFT: ALLSIDES DATA

Data compiled by Statista shows that CBS, CNN, NBC, ABC, MSNBC, and Fox News are the most viewed tv news networks. Of the six most watched news networks, 5 out of six of them lean left.

According to research conducted by Allsides; CBS, CNN, NBC, ABC, and MSNBC all are biased toward the left.

Allsides Rating of Media Outlets and Their Bias
CBS: Left
CNN: Left
NBC: Left
ABC: Left
Fox: Right
MSNBC: Left

Of the 57 media outlets Allsides reviewed, most were biased in favor of the left. 31 media outlets lean left, compared to 17 outlets that leaned right and 9 outlets that were center.

According to Allsides, “AllSides Media Bias Ratings are based on multi-partisan, scientific analysis.”

THE MAJORITY OF JOURNALISTS IDENTIFY AS LIBERAL: ARIZONA STATE UNIVERSITY AND TEXAS A&M UNIVERSITY STUDY

According to researchers from Arizona State University and Texas A&M University, out of 462 financial journalists they questioned from various media outlets (Associated Press, the New York Times, Washington Post, and the Wall Street Journal), 17.63% identified as “very liberal” and 40.84% identified as “somewhat liberal,” compared to 0.46% who identified as “very conservative” and 3.94% who identified as “somewhat conservative.”

According to the math, for every one “conservative” there are 13 “liberals.”

THE MAJORITY OF JOURNALISTS IDENTIFY AS LIBERAL: THE AMERICAN JOURNALIST IN THE DIGITAL AGE STUDY

According to a 2018 study conducted by two Indiana University professors, Democrat journalists significantly outnumber Republican journalists. Their study also shows that the decline of Republican journalists, over time, is greater than the decline of Democrat journalists.

According to the authors of the study, “Compared with 2002, the percentage of full-time U.S. journalists who claim to be Democrats has dropped 8 percentage points in 2013 to about 28 percent, moving this figure closer to the overall population percentage of 30 percent, according to a December 12-15, 2013, ABC News/Washington Post national poll of 1,005 adults. This is the lowest percentage of journalists saying they are Democrats since 1971. An even larger drop was observed among journalists who said they were Republicans in 2013 (7.1 percent) than in 2002 (18 percent), but the 2013 figure is still notably lower than the percentage of U.S. adults who identified with the Republican Party (24 percent according to the poll mentioned above).”

MAJORITY OF JOURNALISTS DONATE TO DEMOCRATS AND LIBERAL CAUSES: CENTER FOR PUBLIC INTEGRITY ANALYSIS

Results from a Center for Public Integrity analysis, between January 2015 and August 2016, found that when comparing campaign donations made by journalists between Trump and Clinton, 96% percent of the donations went to Clinton.

THE MAJORITY OF JOURNALISTS DONATE TO DEMOCRATS AND LIBERAL CAUSES: MEDIA RESEARCH CENTER

An analysis by the Media Research Center found that 94% of donors affiliated with ABC, CBS, NBC, the New York Times, and the Washington Post also donated to Democrats between 2008 and 2016.

MAJORITY OF JOURNALISTS DONATE TO DEMOCRATS AND LIBERAL CAUSES: MSNBC ANALYSIS

According to an analysis conducted by MSNBC, of 143 journalists who made campaign contributions from 2004 to 2008, 87% of them gave to Democrats or liberal causes.

MAJORITY OF JOURNALISTS DONATE TO DEMOCRATS AND LIBERAL CAUSES: CROWDPAC STUDY

According to an analysis by Crowdpac, the non-partisan political analytics firm, there are far more liberal donors than conservative donors in the media, entertainment, and academia. The study showed that out of 10,719 donors in the media, 8,976 donors (83.7%) leaned to the left, compared to 1,743 donors (16.3%) who leaned to the right.

THE MAJORITY OF PEOPLE BELIEVE THERE IS A LIBERAL BIAS IN THE MEDIA: PEW RESEARCH STUDY

According to the results of a Pew Research survey, conducted in July 2003, 51% of Americans believe media outlets have a liberal bias, compared to 26% of Americans who believe that they have a conservative bias. A majority of Republicans, Independents, and Democrats all agreed that there’s more of a liberal bias than a conservative bias. 41% of Democrats said the media is biased in favor of liberals, compared to 33% of Democrats that said the media is biased in favor of conservatives.

THE MAJORITY OF PEOPLE BELIEVE THERE IS A LIBERAL BIAS IN THE MEDIA: GALLUP STUDY

According to a Gallup poll, conducted in February 2003, when respondents were asked, “In general, do you think the news media are — too liberal, just about right, or too conservative?” 45% answered that the media is “too liberal,” compared to 15% that believed it was “too conservative” and 36% that believed it was “just about right.”

Respondents identified three times more liberal bias than conservative bias.

THE MAJORITY OF PEOPLE BELIEVE THERE IS A LIBERAL BIAS IN THE MEDIA: KNIGHTS FOUNDATION AND GALLUP STUDY

According to the results of a Gallup/Knight Foundation survey, titled “American Views 2020: Trust, Media, and Democracy,” 70% of respondents are concerned that owners of media companies are influencing coverage to push an agenda. 57% of respondents believe that the news they view is biased, and 52% of respondents believe that inaccuracies in reporting are a deliberate attempt to misrepresent the facts.

MAJORITY OF PEOPLE DISTRUST THE MEDIA: GALLUP STUDY

According to a Gallup poll, conducted in September 2021, a majority of Americans distrust the media. Only “36% in the U.S. have a “great deal” or “fair amount” of trust in mass media.” 68% of Democrats, 31% of independents, and 11% of Republicans trust the media.

SOURCES

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Noyes, R. (2020, August 17). Study: 150 times more negative news on Trump than Biden. Newsbusters. Retrieved October 13, 2022, from https://www.newsbusters.org/blogs/nb/rich-noyes/2020/08/17/study-150-times-more-negative-news-trump-biden

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