Posted on 11/09/2015 1:10:24 PM PST by Kaslin
Kelly Riddell at the Washington Times has some shocking news which will doubtless send many of you to the fainting couch. If you check the number of journalists covering politics in America today who can be identified as belonging to one party or the other, the spread is actually nowhere near the breakdown you find among all the voters in the country.
A mere 7 percent of journalists identify as Republicans, and when they do give money to political campaigns they usually donate to Democrats, lending evidence to Republican presidential candidates' claims that they are facing a hostile audience when they deal with the press.
As Republican candidates prepare for their fourth debate of the primary season Tuesday in Milwaukee, the people doing the questioning are increasingly in the spotlight, with their motives being questioned by the campaigns, voters and even by their fellow journalists.
And self-proclaimed Democratic journalists outnumber Republicans by 4-to-1, according to research by Lars Willnat and David Weaver, professors of journalism at Indiana University. They found 28 percent of journalists call themselves Democrats, while just 7 percent call themselves Republicans though both numbers are down from the 1970s. Those identifying as independent have grown.
If there’s anything shocking in this study it’s that they actually found 35% of the journalists who were either willing to admit or could be traced to identifiable evidence that they were “officially” entangled with one party or the other. For the most part, unless one falls into the “opinion journalism” school of employment such as the evening line-up at MSNBC or Fox, identifying yourself is considered a naughty mark on your resume. Most of the folks doing what’s considered “hard news” go out of their way to avoid such a tag. When I interviewed Jake Tapper earlier this year he mentioned that he doesn’t even vote in national elections, even though the process is entirely private, just to keep himself out of the fray.
There are exceptions, of course. One of the most famous would be George Stephanopoulos, who actually worked for the Clintons directly before going into the news game, and then continued to work for them indirectly through his efforts for the Clinton Foundation. The results in terms of unbiased work for ABC have been obvious and disappointing to say the least.
The real problem here isn’t the 35% who can be identified by party affiliation; at least you can identify them and take that into account when judging their coverage. It’s the other 65% who are found at all levels of the business right up to the very top. Frankly, once you round all of them up I’d be shocked if even 7% of them showed up as Republicans. The media is dominated by liberals in a hive mind configuration, much like the nation’s university system. Liberals seem to be more drawn to the programs of studies which lead to such careers and once they’ve basically taken over the highest echelons of the profession they control the hiring of who else gets in the door later. It’s really a self-fulfilling prophecy in that regard.
So what to do about it? This is the portion of the column where I’m supposed to chime in with a laundry list of suggestions for how to correct the situation and restore some semblance of balance. Sadly, I only have one and it involves the ugly, dirty, use of money. If the conservatives are better at anything in this society it’s making money. So buy up more media outlets and take control of the hiring yourself. Beyond that… I’m fresh out of ideas.
What a joke.
The Democrat party installs party operatives in the media.
Journalist’s don’t exist.
Working for a Dem is the most direct route to the media.
Pray America wakes
They're called Journolists
I think that is incorrect. That would place Republican representation at 25% and I am highly confident it is no where near that high.
More like an accurate ratio would be closer to 95 to 1, with the remaining 4% registering Independent, but voting Democrat.
The Liberal control of all sources of televised information is the greatest threat our Republic now faces. They are worse than ISIS, because they elected the man who caused ISIS.
The Liberal media monopoly needs to be destroyed. Democracy depends on accurate and complete information reaching the public, and we can no longer afford to let Liberal Democrat Union members from Urban environments Censor the news.
Rush Limbaugh and others in talk radio have made talk radio a conservative outpost.
For whatever reason, liberal talk such as the Air America network, have not taken root.
I think that conservatives have created alternative media, in talk radio and the internet. Conservatives have not been able to penetrate the MSM too much, but, went out and created alternatives to the alphabet networks, Wash Post, NY Times,etc.
Chris Mathews used to work for Tip O’Neill.
Bob Beckel was Mondale’s campaign manager.
I’m sure there are others, can’t think of them right now.
But how many in the media used to work for Republicans? That would be interesting to see such a listing.
Statistical anomaly? Yeah, that’s the ticket.
Anymore news coverage should be disclosed as an “in-kind” donation to campaigns.
Creepy George Will?
Bob Beckel was Mondale's campaign manager.
I'm sure there are others, can't think of them right now.
George Stephanopoulos. He went directly from the White House to ABC News.
Ah yes. George S. who wonders if states can ban contraception, and grills Republicans about that. The same George S. who gives huge donations to the Clintons but fails to disclose it as he reports on the Clintons family foundation. That George S.............
There is a great map of the dem/media incest somewhere. I don’t have it.
By the way, how’s Lucadia looking these days, been to Lou’s records lately?
It doesn’t matter how the press self-identifies. The press *is* the DNC. They are not biased toward the left, they *are* the left.
They are owned by the DNC and in fact they are one of DNC’s main constituent parts. They steer and are steered by the party. When you read their publications you are reading the party’s current view on a subject, or you are reading what the party is selling. Its up to you to figure out if what they are writing is their real view, or what they want you to believe, or what they want you to believe they believe. But never forget that they don’t just work for the party, they are the party.
No haven’t been to Lou’s records. I live in La Mesa, don’t get up to Leucadia very often.
Perhaps you should ask how many long term goals of the Communist (Manifesto) agenda are furthered by controlling the media (and education system and one or both political parties)? Reminder as entered in the Congressional Record in 1963 courtesy of a freeper:
Former FBI agent, Cleon Skoussen, in 1958, in his book, THE NAKED COMMUNIST, revealed among other things, these long term goals of the communist agenda. The information is in the Congressional Record August 1963 and in the Communist Manifesto:
â¢Capture one or both of the political parties in the U.S.
â¢Get control of the schools. Use them as transmission belts for socialism and current communist propaganda. Get control of the teachers associations.
â¢Gain control of all student newspapers.
â¢Infiltrate the press. Get control of book review assignments, editorial writing, policy-making positions.
â¢Gain control of key positions in radio, TV and motion pictures.
â¢Eliminate all laws governing obscenity by calling them censorship and a violation of free speech and free press.
â¢Break down cultural standards of morality by promoting pornography and obscenity in books, magazines, motion pictures and TV.
â¢Present homosexuality, degeneracy and promiscuity as normal, natural and healthy.
â¢Infiltrate the churches and replace revealed religion with social religion. Discredit the Bible and emphasize the need for intellectual maturity which does not need a religious crutch.
â¢Eliminate prayer or any phase of religious expression in the schools on the grounds that it violates the principles of separation of church and state.
That FReeper would be forest.
Lou’s rocks, they have a used barn.
Get into North County a bit. Great vibe up that way.
Train beers at Carlsbad Village Pub. Fooseball.
I was there ‘91 to ‘99, got my hang IV (hang glider) rating in ‘93 and was a Torrey Pines’ glider rat from ‘93 till I left.
Da Kind!
“There is a great map of the dem/media incest somewhere. I donât have it.”
Could you be referring to the graph from post #37 on this thread?
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/3336865/posts
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.