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| Home Front: Politix |
| Voters suspect the NYT, etc. are on Kerry's Team |
| 2004-09-20 |
| Survey of 1,000 Likely Voters September 19, 2004 Forty percent (40%) of voters see the campaign coverage of their local newspapers as unbiased. However, only 20% to 29% view national papers as unbiased. Among five different papers, the New York Times is seen as the most biased--35% believe its coverage is biased to help Kerry while only 22% believe it is unbiased. This may be a lingering response to the Jayson Blair scandals from last year. At that time, only 46% of Americans viewed the New York Times as a reliable source of information. Every national paper except the WSJ is thought to be biased for Kerry; I wonder what Brits think of the Al-Guardian? |
| Posted by:mhw |
| #6 Having had a glimpse inside the NYT sausage factory, no one can seriously claim the NYT's the "paper of record" anymore. It's basically a lengthier version of The Nation or The New Republic, with the addition of lots of frou-frou about fashion and gay lifestyles. |
| Posted by: lex 2004-09-20 7:44:02 PM |
| #5 Gee, who woulda thunk the NYT is biased to the left? My sister in law reads it all the time, probably because it reinforces her view of the world. She told me once that the NYT "opens her mind", neglecting of course to mention what the NYT does not cover. |
| Posted by: Bill Nelson 2004-09-20 7:33:32 PM |
| #4 Smash Big Media! Let a thousand blogs contend. |
| Posted by: lex 2004-09-20 7:21:58 PM |
| #3 It is good in some respects to have a press which is unashamedly partisan. JiB is right about all Brits knowing where the press stands - not just the broadsheets, but the middle-markets and tabloids too. There's practically a medium for everyone, and as I've pointed out here before, the considered right-wing press sell considerably better than the left-wing rags. That may be because right-wingers tend to be more curious about what's going on in the world, but mainly, I suspect, because rightwing papers tend to keep their bias to the editorial pages whereas left-wing bias seeps into not only virtually every story, but also into what gets covered. You simply can't trust the likes of the Guardian and the Independent to keep you well informed, as most people realise sooner or later. It's interesting to compare the newspaper situation to the broadcast media. The BBC, which still enjoys something of a state-ensured monopoly on authoritative news, politics and current events coverage on TV and radio, is much more prone to criticism than, say the Guardian and the Independent. Its (false) claim and responsibility to be impartial affects everyone. |
| Posted by: Bulldog 2004-09-20 6:47:52 PM |
| #2 The NYT long ago changed from a newspaper to a viewspaper. More of a marketing strategy than anything else: target gays and secular, childless yuppies across the country. We're rapidly moving toward a British-style partisan press because, given the collapse in media cred with a majority of readers, niche marketing and opinion-pushing make good business sense. |
| Posted by: lex 2004-09-20 5:24:58 PM |
| #1 Every Brit knows the politics of each of the broadsheets and even the tabloids. But it is interesting that if you fly Virgin you get the Independent (which is left-wing)but not the Telly (which is right-wing). This makes it easier for them to fly around in circles! |
| Posted by: Jack is Back 2004-09-20 5:14:43 PM |