Posted on 04/23/2012 9:53:17 AM PDT by Sub-Driver
Politico Co-Founder: Most Journalists I've Known Are Democrats By Matthew Sheffield Created 04/23/2012 - 12:33pm
In one of the more honest admissions of the obvious, Politico co-founder Jim VandeHei admitted earlier this month that the majority of the journalists that he's known in his career at a variety of publications "vote Democratic."
"If I had to guess, if you put all of the reporters that I’ve ever worked with on truth serum, most of them vote Democratic," VandeHei said during the March 14th edition of C-SPAN's "Road to the White House" program. Video follows.
Thanks to the Washington Free Beacon for the catch.
This wasn't the first time that VandeHei has told the truth about what reporters think about Republicans and Democrats. Last year, he stated that he didn't think there were "any" reporters working in the business who believed that former Alaska governor Sarah Palin should become president of the United States.
While he is now more willing to talk about the Democratic dominance of the media industry, VandeHei's remarks contradict his earlier expressed belief that the news media favor "centrist" politicians and policies. Several months before his admission that the media dislike Palin, VandeHei wrote with his fellow Politico co-founder John Harris that the national political press is against "ideological zealoutry" and is "centrist:"
Conservatives are convinced the vast majority of reporters at mainstream news organizations are liberals who hover expectantly for each new issue of The Nation.
It’s just not true. The majority of political writers we know might more accurately be accused of centrist bias.
That is, they believe broadly in government activism but are instinctually skeptical of anything that smacks of ideological zealotry and are quick to see the public interest as being distorted by excessive partisanship. Governance, in the Washington media’s ideal, should be a tidier and more rational process than it is.
Assuming he hasn't come to a different opinion and that the infamously liberal Harris didn't write the above paragraphs, it appears VandeHei believes the media are biased in favor of centrist Democrats.
Unfortunately, as NewsBusters has persistently demostrated, liberal Democrats are far less likely to be labeled or be perceived as such by the national press. That makes sense, since one is less likely to perceive as extreme one's ideological fellows. While VandeHei may believe his colleagues favor moderate Democrats, in reality, this translates to a bias in favor of Democrats generally.
So while we can give kudos to VandeHei for admitting what surveys of journalists have consistently shown (see our recently released Media Bias 101 for full details), it looks like he may still have a ways to go before he can admit that liberal Democrats dominate the elite media, not centrist ones.
I’ve seen polls which indicate only about 7% of journalists have been to a religious service within three years. There is a famous clip on YouTube where Obama quips to a large group of reporters that Obama knows, “most of you supported me”. Other surveys have shown a 90ish % majority who consider themselves liberal.
It’s always puzzled me that mainstream journalists are NEVER Conservative. Surely if the vocation promotes based upon merit or qualification there would occasionally be a Conservative news anchor in a country which boasts 40% conservatives?
Very strange indeed.
Well. I meant that neat picture I have seen!
Ha, ha, this clown says most journalists he knows are centrists. However, “they do believe strongly in government activism.” Someone should send this moron a statement about the differences between conservatives and liberals from Mark Levin.
NO, NO, NO - they are leftist. We need to stop using the warm and fuzzy term "Liberal". Call them leftists, socialists, Marxist or communist, but NOT LIBERal. They are anti-LIBERal, they are anti-Freedom.
Stop the Insanity! Take back the language!
... those with a proclivity for journalism are of a liberal persuasion early on. They attend college and major in journalism attending classes taught by ultra-liberal professors. They go on into journalism careers and are surrounded in their insular world by like thinking journalist robots. Nothing strange here ... whatsoever.
“Most”???????
No kidding...kinda a “Most water is wet” moment.
Yeah, I’m with you.
Time for more people to grow a pair and call them “communists” as they are.
It’s funny though, that leftists REALLY get their back up when you call them communists.
Usually, it’s when you call them “socialist” and they point to the dictionary and say that they don’t fit the definition.
At which point, it’s time to concede the point and tell them that it is indeed true that they fit the definition of “fascist” better than “socialist”, but you were trying to be nice.
>> We need to stop using the warm and fuzzy term “Liberal”. <<
Couldn’t agree more. And while we’re at it, let’s ban the terms “red states” and “red counties” when referring to jurisdictions with GOP majorities. Red stands for leftism, blue stands for patriotism!
There's no money in it. Seriously. Starting salaries in journalism are awful . . . at least they were back when I was getting started in the early 1990s. Hell, my editor worked a second job at a mall selling jeans.
The only way you can hang in journalism as a young buck is with a trust fund, or indulgent parents.
That one hurts. It’s because the Wings never replaced McCarty. The real one.
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