A pair of Rasmussen surveys conducted in mid-July 2007, each of approximately 1,000 adults, documented how Americans perceive various television news outlets and major newspapers. The first poll found a plurality of Americans see a liberal tilt at ABC, CBS, NBC, CNN and NPR, while at the same time detecting a conservative bias at Fox News. The second poll, released one day later, discovered that most Americans saw the
New York Times, the
Washington Post and their own local newspaper as tilting to the left, while slightly more of those who saw bias at the
Wall Street Journal thought it favored conservatives (22%, vs. 18% who saw liberal bias at the Journal).
KEY FINDINGS:
- “By a 39% to 20% margin, American adults believe that the three major broadcast networks deliver news with a bias in favor of liberals. A Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey found that just 25% believe that ABC, CBS, and NBC deliver the news without any bias.”
- “Similar results are found for CNN and National Public Radio (NPR). By a margin of 33% to 16%, Americans say that CNN has a liberal bias. The nation’s adults say the same about NPR by a 27% to 14% margin.”
- “There is one major exception to the belief that media outlets have a liberal bias — Fox News. Thirty-one percent (31%) of Americans say it has a bias that favors conservatives while 15% say it has a liberal bias.”
- “Those not affiliated with either major party tend to see a liberal bias everywhere except Fox. Thirty-eight percent (38%) of unaffiliateds see a liberal bias at the major television networks while only 19% see a conservative bias.”
- “Among the print publications in the survey, the New York Times is perceived as being furthest to the left. Forty percent (40%) of Americans believe the Times has a bias in favor of liberals.” Even liberals recognized the bias: “25% of liberals see a liberal bias at the New York Times while only 17% see a conservative bias.”
- “Thirty-five percent (35%) of Americans see a liberal bias in their local newspaper while 21% see a conservative bias. For the Washington Post, 30% see a liberal bias and 16% see a conservative bias.”
- “Twenty-nine percent (29%) see the Wall Street Journal as unbiased. Among those who see the Journal as biased, opinion is fairly evenly divided as to who that publication favors — 22% say the Journal has a conservative bias while 18% see a liberal bias.”
Previous: Exhibit 2-12: Coverage of the War in Iraq, 2007
Next: Exhibit 2-14: Harvard's "National Leadership Index" Survey (2007)