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Thursday, December 13, 2007

Why Democrats dominate the news

Posted: December 13, 2007
1:00 a.m. Eastern

By Craige McMillan

© 2007 

If you think the election coverage during the first half of 2007 has been "all Democrats, all the time," you're close to right.

A recent study by the Project for Excellence in Journalism and Harvard's Shorenstein Center found that during the first half of 2007, "49 percent of all (news) stories involved Democrat candidates, while just 31 percent involved Republican candidates. In addition, Democrat candidates drew more positive stories (35 percent) than Republican candidates (26 percent)."

Among so-called mainline news outlets – you know, the ones with all the money and reporters – the discrepancy was even worse: "59 percent of all stories about Democrats had a clear, positive message compared to 11 percent that carried a negative tone. Nearly four in 10 evening news stories about Democrats (39.5 percent) were rated as positive, while just 17.1 percent were coded as negative. For Republicans, 37.2 percent of stories were negative, compared to 18.6 percent that were positive."

I've documented the heavily leftist bias in news reporting on many occasions, most recently in a column titled "'Independence Day' for the Wall Street Journal?" The reason this bias matters is that without new ideas and clear debate on their merits, democracy is headed for a footnote in tomorrow's history books.

Arguably, the biggest responsibility news outlets face comes at election time. For voters, choosing the best government from available choices requires an exploration of the ideas put forward by various political candidates with discussion by opponents, experts and the public.

So how are the Big Media doing? From the same study: "Hillary Clinton drew nearly twice as much media coverage as any Republican candidate. Overall, 17 percent of stories were about Clinton, followed by Barack Obama (14 percent), Rudy Giuliani (9 percent), John McCain (7 percent) and Mitt Romney (5 percent)."

There's an old saying in politics that "you can't beat somebody with nobody." The same is true in the election of ideas – which is what we're really voting for (or against). When the media don't present Republican candidates' ideas, well, the public is inclined to believe they don't have any.

I suspect that suits most reporters and editors just fine. By skewing the news coverage leftward, they can convince those who depend upon them for the news that leftist candidates offer the best vision for America. They can do so simply by blacking out criticism of their candidates' ideas, and then failing to give voice to new ideas on the political right. (They sometimes do this even with political ads.)

The end effect is a media-manufactured public belief that the only ideas for progress are coming from the political left and their candidates.

There is a solution for the media. I call it "affirmative action for ideas." They need a hiring freeze on leftists and an open recruitment and fast-track promotion program for conservatives. Look for that idea to appear on Page 1, real soon now.