Poll: The Media Is Biased
Poll: The Media Is Biased
Submitted by politicalWinters on Mon, 06/09/2008 - 11:55am.
Not good news, but the public doesn't consider the media very objective this election year, according to a new Rasmussen Reports poll.
In fact, just 17 percent of those polled believe reporters are unbiased. A whopping 68 percent believe reporters actually try and help out their favored candidate.
Quote: The perception that reporters are advocates rather than observers is held by 82% of Republicans, 56% of Democrats, and 69% of voters not affiliated with either major party. The skepticism about reporters cuts across income, racial, gender, and age barriers.
So, what do you think? Is the media biased toward one candidate or another?
Reporters
It's my observation that most reporters try to be objective and may sometimes even be more critical of politicians they support than those they had no expectations of. The way to avoid bias is to challenge every assumption made by politicians, not just those you're unfamiliar with or disagree with.
I think that's where some national reporters get into trouble is in not challenging assumptions that they themselves accept. For example, if one candidate says he'll address the price of gas by drilling for off-shore oil and the other says he'll do it by cutting the tax, a reporter who accepts that increased supply will lower prices might not challenge the candidate's assumptions but may challenge the other's tax proposal, and vice-versa.
Walter Jones is the director of Morris News Service and has been covering politics since 1998.