'liberal media bias' revealed

For a big, tough Calgarian hockey dad come to whip us Toronto Star tea-drinkers into shape, PM Harper is pretty easily damaged. He has now invoked the Blogging Tories in last-ditch imbecility.

This notion of a liberal (or Liberal) media bias is one that has perplexed myself and my co-blogger from some time. There's the Star, granted. But what else? The Sun, which amounts to the local newspaper of every mid-sized Canadian city - well, no. The Post? CanWest Global? Globe and Mail - maybe sometimes, although with an opinion page dominated by Christine Blatchford? Yes, the CBC has run mini-series about Tommy Douglas and Pierre Trudeau. But who watches CBC mini-series? (Other than me - because Colm Feore's Trudeau is cinema's zenith).

Anyways, here's the truth. This was published last fall:


Canada: No Evidence of Liberal Media Bias

October 4, 2005

By MARSHA BARBER AND ANN RAUHALA

Source: Toronto Star

Here we go again. Once more, as we edge closer to a federal election, conservative commentators accuse the news media of being out of touch with the real public, of having a liberal bias. It's a predictable pronouncement that elicits knowing nods from the right.
The problem is, what hard evidence there is about Canadian newsrooms shows that just isn't true. The Canadian News Directors Study, a national survey of the political leanings of television news directors, found otherwise.

We asked news directors — journalists in charge of setting news agendas — dozens of questions about what they think and what they do. Guess what? When it comes to voting patterns, our key TV journalists are not much different from their viewers. Their political allegiances are very much in line with those of the general population — in sharp contrast to what has been found in the United States.

In 2002, 46 per cent of news directors we surveyed said they would vote for the Liberals.
Environics polls conducted about the same time showed that between 40 and 46 per cent of the population intended to vote Liberal. Fifteen per cent of news directors intended to vote for the Conservatives and just over 10 per cent for the Canadian Alliance.

Environics estimated that between 15 and 18 per cent of Canadians said they intended to vote for the Tories and between 14 and 18 per cent for the Alliance.

Yes, the news directors' numbers were a little lower than the public's when it came to the Alliance. But that should be weighed against the fact that only 10 per cent of news directors intended to vote for the New Democrats. In Canada, NDP support at that time measured between 13 and 16 per cent. In short, TV news bosses are more in the middle than, well, the middle.

So what does this tell us? At least among decision makers, Canadian broadcast newsrooms are not crawling with a disproportionate number of leftists.
And, speaking of lefties, in case you're wondering about the CBC, here's another reality check: 13 per cent of CBC news directors said they would vote for the NDP. Again, this is right in line with the public, in fact a little on the low side.

No CBC news directors said they intended to vote for the Alliance but more than 11 per cent of news directors in the private sector did — so just a little channel surfing should smooth the furrowed brow of any fretful social conservative.

There's a history of this kind of thumping of the media elsewhere, most notably in the U.S. where research shows the vast majority of journalists are Democrats and also that there's a gap between their views and those of the general population. Republican pundits make much of this.
The Canadian right may wish to import that research as evidence that Canadian journalists really do not reflect their readers and audiences. However, the data we gathered show that this baggage really ought to be stopped at the border for much closer examination.
Recently, Peter Kent challenged journalists to assess liberal bias in the upcoming federal election. Kent, deputy editor of news at Global TV, will run as a Conservative candidate in a Toronto riding.

In his challenge, he conceded that "the liberal tilt isn't reflected in news content ... That's because — most of the time — responsible practitioners of our noble craft sublimate personal and political inclinations in their news-gathering and reporting."
We hope that's true. But it's important that Kent and others know it goes beyond that. Even in the privacy of the polling booth, at least in television news, agenda setters closely match the public they seek to inform.

There is no conspiracy, folks. And the numbers so far bear this out.

Marsha Barber and Ann Rauhala are co-authors of the Canadian News Directors Study and journalism professors at Ryerson University in Toronto.

- Mike (SCG)