From Media Research Council

MRC.org

Poll: Twice as Many See Media as Too
Liberal as Too Conservative

     By two-to-one, 40 percent to 21 percent, Americans "believe the media is too liberal" over "too conservative," the just-released "National Leadership Index" poll by the Center for Public Leadership at Harvard University's John F. Kennedy School of Government, determined. Harvard's findings in the survey taken in September match a Gallup poll, also conducted in September, which found "more than twice as many Americans say the news media are too liberal (45%) rather than too conservative (18%)." In the Harvard poll, while 68 percent of Republicans said they think "the press is too liberal," 35 percent of independents agree and even 25 percent of Democrats consider the media to be too liberal, nearly as many as the 28 percent who see it as too conservative.

     The Harvard survey discovered widespread dissatisfaction with how the media are coving the presidential campaign as 64 percent "say they do not trust the news media's campaign coverage," 88 percent "somewhat or strongly agree that the news media focuses too much on trivial rather than important issues," 84 percent "believe the news media has too much influence on voters' decisions" and 83 percent think "large corporations have too much influence over what information the news media reports during the campaign."

     An excerpt from the PDF of the report released on November 28 by the Center for Public Leadership, directed by David Gergen, at Harvard University's John F. Kennedy School of Government:

....Leaders in the press have inspired less confidence than leaders in any other sector during each of the three years of the National Leadership Index (2005-2007). Given the central role of the news media in covering presidential politics, Americans were asked how they felt about media coverage of the 2008 campaign.

64% of Americans say they do not trust the news media's campaign coverage...

88% somewhat or strongly agree that the news media focuses too much on trivial rather than important issues

84% believe the news media has too much influence on voters' decisions

83% believe that large corporations have too much influence over what information the news media reports during the campaign...

Americans say that what they want most, but are getting least, from news media coverage of the election is substantive information about what the candidates stand for. For instance:

92% say that it is somewhat or very important that the news media provide information on candidates' specific policy plans, but 61% believe that the news media is not providing enough coverage of policy plans

89% say that information on candidates' personal ethics or values is somewhat or very important, but 43% say that the news media is not providing enough coverage of candidates' ethics and values...

More than 40% of Americans also believe that the news media does not provide enough coverage of candidates' general political values or philosophy, past positions on political issues, and sources of campaign contributions.

Americans say they are getting too much coverage of the campaign topics they are least interested in, such as candidates' personal lives, negative ads, and "gotcha'" moments. For instance:

70% say that coverage of negative ads is not very or not at all important, but 65% say the news media is providing too much coverage of negative ads

67% say that coverage of embarrassing incidents or mistakes that make a candidate look bad is not very or not at all important, but 68% say the news media is providing too much coverage of embarrassing incidents and mistakes.

52% say that coverage of candidates' family and private lives is not very or not at all important, but 48% say the news media is providing too much coverage of candidates' family and private lives...

Do you think that the press coverage of the election is politically biased? If yes, do you think it is too liberal or too conservative?

61% of Americans believe the news media's election coverage is politically biased:

40% believe the media is too liberal

21% believe the media is too conservative

Only 30% believe that media coverage of the campaign is not biased in a liberal or conservative direction....

Republicans have the strongest attitudes -- 68% believe that the press is too liberal. Independents and Democrats are more ambivalent:

34% of Independents believe that the press is not politically biased, and 35% believe that it is too liberal

Democrats are the most likely to believe that the press is not politically biased (38%), and are statistically equally likely to believe that the press is too conservative (28%) or too liberal (25%)...