Is Media Bias Affecting Presidential Politics?
By Jessica Cusick
All sources of political media have the power to influence the opinions of voters. People get their political information from many media sources including major broadcasting networks, cable news channels, newspapers, radio, and the Internet. How accurate and reliable is the information being fed to people? Is the media biased?
According to recent Rasmussen Reports polls, the media is biased in favor of liberal views. A recent Rasmussen poll found that by a two to one margin, American adults believe the three major broadcasting networks deliver news with a bias in favor of liberals. Only 25 percent of people believe that ABC, NBC, and CBS deliver the news without any bias. Similar results were found for CNN and NPR (National Public Radio) with one third of Americans believing these sources offered unbiased news coverage. The only exception to the liberal bias found was Fox News. 31 percent believe Fox News has a bias favoring conservatives, 15 percent say its bias favors liberals, and roughly half of all people believe Fox News offers fair and balanced reporting. In addition, another Rasmussen poll found that in print media, the New York Times, Washington Post, and local newspapers were also seen as having a liberal bias. 
Relative to the 2008 presidential election, seven out of ten voters are convinced that reporters try to help the candidate they want to win, and this year by a nearly five to one margin that candidate is Barack Obama. Only a quarter of American adults believe reporters offer unbiased coverage. Most concerning is that over half of Americans believe media bias is more of a problem than the possibility that politicians will break rules or laws to help people who make large contributions to their campaigns.
Also interesting is the finding that the news you watch says a lot about how you will vote. 87 percent of Fox News watchers say they will likely vote for John McCain while those who watch CNN and MSNBC plan to support Obama by a two to one margin. Those who read a print newspaper are about evenly divided between McCain and Obama, but among those who read the same newspapers online, Obama has the edge.
A recent study by The Pew Research Center found that just 14 percent of the stories about John McCain from the conventions through the last debate were positive while 60 percent of the stories about him were negative and the rest were neutral. For Obama over the same period, 36 percent of stories were positive, 29 percent were negative, and the rest were neutral.
Is media bias affecting the presidential election? Only time will tell. On November 4th, we will find out together as a nation whether or not the media bias has swayed voters. For now, the situation appears to be as Sean Hannity often proclaims, "Journalism is dead in this country."
Sources:
Rasmussen Reports polls:
http://www.rasmussenreports.com/public_content/politics/election_20082/2008 _presidential_election/news_you_watch_says_a_lot_about_how_you_ll_vote
http://www.rasmussenreports.com/public_content/politics/current_events/ general_current_events/media/americans_see_liberal_media_bias_on_tv_news
http://www.rasmussenreports.com/public_content/politics/current_events/
general_current_events/media/new_york_times_washington_post_and_local_
newspapers_seen_as_having_liberal_bias
http://www.rasmussenreports.com/public_content/politics/election_20082/2008
_presidential_election/69_say_reporters_try_to_help_the_candidate_they_want
_to_win
http://news.yahoo.com/s/politico/20081022/pl_politico/14829/print