Just The Facts

The Pew Research Center for the People and the Press has released a new media study. For people dizzy from the spin on the various blogs analyzing the news media here’s some dry facts to lift some of the fog. I’ve hardly read all of the extensive study. Naturally, I zeroed in on the Fox News stuff. Here’s some meat:

The credibility ratings for most major news organizations are either flat or have slipped since 2004. These ratings are highly partisan, though the political differences for most sources have narrowed over the past year as Democrats take a more negative view in the believability of several leading news outlets.

The percentage of people who say they regularly watch Fox News Channel increased by half between 2000 and 2004 but has stabilized over the past two years. Currently, 23% say they regularly watch Fox News Channel, roughly the same as in 2004 (25%). The network’s audience continues to include a relatively large percentage of Republicans ­ 34% of whom say they regularly watch Fox News Channel, compared with 20% of Democrats.

The percentage of Americans who say they regularly listen to National Public Radio has approximately doubled since 1994 (from 9% to 17%). Nearly twice as many Democrats as Republicans say they regularly listen to NPR (22% vs. 13%). A decade ago, NPR’s audience was fairly evenly balanced politically.

There’s a lot of other information like media credibility survey results. I’m sure folks on all sides of this issue will cherry pick what they want to believe with glee. I look foward to forward to the fireworks. :)

2 Comments

  1. Comment by Jerry on August 10, 2006 8:16 pm

    Firstly, you don’t say the “Please add 1 and 4″ type questions is required, but then after typing everything, we are told it is required. Shouldn’t you clear that up?

    I lost all my typing, so I will be a little briefer in case it doesn’t work again.

    I find it interesting that you have chosen as your passion (what people do with their time) to hold the feet to the fire of the only mainstream news source that not liberal.

    You say you are moderate, so why choose the only conservative voice in news (talk radio and bloggers don’t count, they are not straight news sources) to pick on?

    My guess is that you are viscerally a liberal, so you only see bias in one direction.

    Have you ever checked out http://www.mediaresearch.org/ ?

    There is bias on both sides, but the liberal viewpoint is everywhere but Fox News. Liberals have Hollywood, all the networks but Fox, all the major newspapers except Wall Street Journal and all the universities.

    I guess you want 100%. Your passion is misdirected. Shouldn’t your goal be trying to get both sides out consistently?

  2. Comment by sknabt on August 10, 2006 11:01 pm

    First, Jerry, let me apologize for your problems with the site. The math question is a plug-in I can’t really tweek. It’s on or it’s off.

    Secondly, there’s a “Forums” tab at the top of the blog. It leads to our forums which would be a great place for you and I to chat about some of the stuff you bring up. In short, I go after Fox News because it’s the most biased major broadcast media outlet I’ve ever seen in my entire life.

    I don’t claim to be a moderate. The co-founder of this site is moderate. He hasn’t posted here yet but should add some content shortly. He’s busy working in the background. In today’s political climate I’m best described as a liberal.

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