55% Say Media Bias Bigger Problem Than Campaign Cash
Monday, August 11, 2008
Voters overwhelmingly believe that politicians will “break the rules to help people who give them a lot of money,” but most say there’s a bigger problem in politics today—media bias.
The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey found that 55% believe media bias is more of a problem than big campaign contributions. Thirty-six percent (36%) disagree and think that campaign cash is a bigger problem.
People believe media bias is a bigger problem even though 63% believe most politicians will break the rules to help campaign contributors. Just 14% believe most politicians would refrain from breaking the rules for a donor. Forty-four percent (44%) say that lobbyists and campaign contributors have too much influence on John McCain’s positions. Forty percent (40%) say the same about Barack Obama.
Just 22% believe it would be a good idea to ban all campaign commercials so that voters could receive information on the campaign only from the news media and the internet. Sixty-six percent (66%) disagree and think that, despite the annoyance factor, it’s better to put up with an election-year barrage of advertising rather than rely on the news media.
An earlier survey found that 49% believe most reporters are trying to help Barack Obama win the election this year. Just 14% believe they’re trying to help McCain. Another survey found that the news you watch says a lot about how you will vote.
Not surprisingly, Republicans are the most likely to see media bias as the bigger problem. Eighty-one percent (81%) of the GOP faithful hold that view. Democrats and unaffiliated voters are more evenly divided. Obama’s Party, by a narrow 50% to 41% margin, say that campaign cash is the bigger issue. Among those not affiliated with either major party, 47% say media bias is the problem while 43% hold the opposite view.
Fifty-three percent (53%) of liberals see campaign contributions as a bigger problem than media bias. Seventy-four percent (74%) of conservatives hold the opposite view. Among the moderates, 49% say media bias is the problem while 42% disagree.
Another survey from earlier this year found that most voters say it is not possible to run for the presidency without the help of lobbyists and special interest groups.
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Scott Rasmussen, president of Rasmussen Reports, has been an independent pollster for more than a decade.
12/02/2009 05:55:11 Subject: Re:The Intrade World Crisis Index
ko
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Joined: 03/11/2007 19:01:54
Messages: 1306
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Rasmussen Reports Site Search
Search for “media bias” returned 7 matches:
Majority Say Reporters Tried To Help Obama
As the presidential campaign comes to a close, a majority of voters (51%) say most reporters have tried to help Barack Obama win the presidency.
69% Say Reporters Try To Help The Candidate They Want To Win
Seven out of 10 voters (69%) remain convinced that reporters try to help the candidate they want to win, and this year by a nearly five-to-one margin voters believe they are trying to help Barack Obama.
47% Favor Government Mandated Political Balance on Radio, TV
Nearly half of Americans (47%) believe the government should require all radio and television stations to offer equal amounts of conservative and liberal political commentary, but they draw the line at imposing that same requirement on the Internet. Thirty-nine percent (39%) say leave radio and TV alone, too.
55% Say Media Bias Bigger Problem Than Campaign Cash
Voters overwhelmingly believe that politicians will “break the rules to help people who give them a lot of money,” but most say there’s a bigger problem in politics today—media bias.
Associated Press, MSNBC and CNBC Seen as Having Liberal Bias
In the final poll of a series measuring perceptions of media bias, the Associated Press, local television stations, MSNBC, and CNBC are all perceived as tilting to the left when reporting the news.
New York Times, Washington Post, and Local Newspapers Seen as Having Liberal Bias
A Rasmussen Reports survey on perceptions of media bias found that Americans tend to believe that the New York Times, Washington Post, and their local newspaper all show a bias in favor of liberals.
Americans See Liberal Media Bias on TV News
By a 39% to 20% margin, American adults believe that the three major broadcast networks deliver news with a bias in favor of liberals.
John:
Skews is a website that sounds like a soul mate for Intrade:
“Skewz is driven by the wisdom of the crowds. “
http://www.skewz.com/help/main?section=how_does_it_work
Skewz is driven by the wisdom of the crowds. You can read latest news, submit a new article, skew and comment on existing articles.
You can also create your own Personal Political Profile, check out our Media Comparison Chart, and add Friends from the community.
Get started now! Add the Skewz bookmarklet to your toolbar so you can skew anything you read on the web!
15/02/2009 04:47:28 Subject: Re:The Intrade World Crisis Index
ko
Sage
Joined: 03/11/2007 19:01:54
Messages: 1306
Online
Okay, john. Here’s a start. Let’s say you use a Skews element + Media bias ratings.com element + Pollingpoint element + opportunistic element + whatever other elements we can find — that would make up the media bias index.
The opportunistic elements would be things like scholarly journals that are published on media bias. The best elements would be followups to commissioned polls that ask directly about media bias, but those cost money.
With the prior example where MBR generated an 18 point liberal bias, you could look at Skews ratings for these TV sites:
msnbc.msn.com, abcnews.go.com, cnn.com, cbsnews.com, pbs.org
Today they’d generate
2 points leftward on Civil Liberties, 4 points leftward on Domestic Policy, zero points on economic policy, 3 points leftward on Elections 2008, 5 points leftward on Energy/Technology, 4 points leftward on foreign policy, 2 points rightward on health, 3 points leftward on Other. That’s 2 + 4 + 3 + 5 + 4 - 2 + 3 which generates 19 points leftward liberal bias. That agrees pretty handily with my previous calculation on MBR and you could average the two.
The pollingpoint results are not in yet. Since I don’t know how they’d present the data, it is difficult to say how it would fit. Let’s say it’s a percentage on these 2 questions. I’ll just put in some numbers.
Do you think that most reporters tend to favor one of the major political parties or not?
Yes, they favor the Democrats 55%
Yes, they favor the Republicans 40%
No, they are fair 5%
Do you think that most reporters’ personal views are liberal, moderate, or conservative?
Liberal 40%
Moderate 20%
Conservative 30%
Not sure 5%
You could take a weighted difference on these 2 questions. 55% -40% = 15% and 40% - 30 % = 10 %. The average is 12.5%.
So here’s what the media bias index would look like today.
MBR: 18
Skews: 19
Polling Point: 12.5 (pretending to use my data)
If the contract were to expire today, it would have zero opportunistic elements, so the value would be (18 + 19 + 12.5)/3 (assuming you weight all 3 the same) = 16.5 points leftward.
You could do this today. For free. You could have these quarterly, monthly, weekly, whatever suits you. You could add value by commissioning polls, soliciting scholarly journals, etc. It would be a good place to start.