Voters See All Networks with Bias (polling numbers cited by Rasmussen)

RasmussenReports.com ^ | September 19, 2004

[Cableguy]

Is Presidential campaign coverage unbiased, biased to help Kerry, or biased to help Bush?

No Bias | Help Kerry | Help Bush CBS 33% 37% 10% ABC 36% 30% 10% NBC 39% 28% 11% CNN 39% 25% 12% Fox 38% 7% 34%

Television news networks would like to see themselves as a team of impartial journalists working on behalf of their audience. However, a Rasmussen Reports survey found that voters see an entirely different picture. Generally speaking, they believe ABC News, CBS News, NBC News, CNN, and the Fox News Channel present a biased picture to help one campaign or the other.

Between 33% and 39% of Americans believe that each of the five major broadcast news outlets is unbiased. On balance, four of the five are believed to be helping the Kerry campaign. One, Fox News, is believed to be helping the Bush campaign.

CBS is seen as the most biased--37% believe that network news team is trying to help the Kerry campaign. Only 33% believe it presents the news in an unbiased manner. This may be a reaction to the recent flap over memos aired by CBS--38% believe that Dan Rather used his broadcasts to help the Kerry campaign.

Bias is clearly in the eye of the beholder and there is a very strong partisan tint to all the data. Fifty-four percent (54%) of all Kerry voters believe that Fox News is trying to help elect Bush. At least 50% of Kerry voters believe that each of the other four news sources are unbiased.

At the other end of the spectrum, 60% of Bush voters believe Fox News is unbiased. Seventy percent (70%) of Bush voters believe that CBS is trying to help Kerry. Between 48% and 55% believe the same is true about CNN, ABC, and NBC.

Twenty-one percent (21%) of Kerry voters believe CNN is biased to help Bush. That may shock conservatives who used to routinely dismiss CNN as the "Clinton News Network."

At the same time, those who dismiss Fox as propaganda may be shocked that the other networks are viewed by voters in essentially the same light.

A survey conducted last year found that only 46% of Americans viewed the New York Times as a reliable source of information.

[Cableguy]

PS My attempt at adding HTML of the poll #'s didn't work. So I just added the numbers as is.

[etradervic]

This fraud is bigger than Dan Rather or even CBS. Rather has become a caricature for the Old Media.

[e_engineer]

I wonder how they asked the questions in this poll. For example, these two questions are almost identical, but clearly have two very different answers:

1) Is CBS News trying to help Kerry? Answer = Yes
2) Is CBS News helping Kerry? Answer(snort..snicker..giggle) = No

[stands2reason]

Well, it's true. About 10% of the poulation thinks the MSM is too conservative. All those big conservative corporations own them, right? [rolls eyes]

[crazyhorse691]

Another poll. I guess the only thing to do now is to allow individuals to conduct their own investigations and post their results where anybody can respond to it. Nice pipe dream, huh?

[Cicero]

Here you go:

Voters See All Networks with Bias

Survey of 1,000 Likely Voters

September 18, 2004

Is Presidential campaign coverage unbiased, biased to help Kerry, or biased to help  Bush?
	No Bias	Help Kerry	Help Bush
CBS	33%	37%	10%
ABC	36%	30%	10%
NBC	39%	28%	11%
CNN	39%	25%	12%
Fox	38%	7%	34%
RasmussenReports.com

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[Cableguy]

That is what I got before. You can't see the numbers.

[Isara]

	No Bias	Help Kerry	Help Bush
CBS	33%	37%	10%
ABC	36%	30%	10%
NBC	39%	28%	11%
CNN	39%	25%	12%
Fox	38%	7%	34%

[USA_Soccer]

CBS is clearly the leader in "Help Kerry" category.

[nmh]

SO, WHO do viewer see as UNBIASED?

MSNBC?

That one wasn't listed as being biased in wither direction.

[HangnJudge]

Best Answer

The Internet reports
I decide
This however requires vigilance and attentiveness
and the willingness to meaningfully interact

The Internet is an extraordinarily Democratic media

[Cableguy]

MSNBC is same as NBC. They share the reporters and many of the anchors.

Most media is seen as biased one way or the other. I can't think of one that is 100% neutral. Maybe some of the local TV stations.

[TheGeezer]

No one watches MSNBC.

[RtWngr]

Nice to only have to worry about watching one network - FOX.

[briant]

Of course the report form the networks will be, "Fox most biased network according to poll."

[Dave_in_Upland]

"Bias is clearly in the eye of the beholder"

Bias, while most often perceived as subjective, is actually objective when an analysis is done word by word and phrase by phrase and the stories covered compared to the stories available. There is no question that the major networks are biased, but there is some doubt if they will ever admit to it.

[Malleus Dei]

If you want to read an objective academic study about media bias, see:

http://www.cbrss.harvard.edu/events/ppe/papers/Tim%20Groseclose%20Media%20Bias%20Paper.pdf

Surprise, the study showed CBS to be the most liberally biased news source.

[Fatuncle]

Question: Will CBS provide neutral, unbiased reporting of the Presidential contest? Answer: They'd Rather not.

[Always Right]

Good to see that most people understand the bias of the sources. Although, IMHO Fox news reporting is the least biased of all, but people just are not used to seeing conservative viewpoints presented, so most mistake balance coverage for biased.