The Left, the Right and the Media Divide
Because he'd certainly be "Shocked, Shocked!!!" to find some things out about the media landscape, circa 2007.
This week's Renault-worthy headline? "Poll: Republicans and Democrats View Media Differently"
You think? Really? According to an Editor and Publisher article:
A new Gallup poll released today show a wide gap between how Republicans and Democrats view the mass media. Nearly 3 in 4 Republicans say the media is "too liberal." But overall, Gallup's director Frank Newport reports, "less than half of Americans, regardless of partisanship, have a great deal or a fair amount of trust in the mass media."…Other findings include the fact that a whopping 9 percent of respondents believe the media reports the news "fully, accurately, and fairly." 9 percent. When you're craning your neck up at Congressional approval ratings and Presidential approval ratings, that's saying something. (To be fair, the percentage of people who said they had a "fair amount" of confidence in the media to do so was 38 percent.)More than twice as many Americans say the news media are too liberal (45%) rather than too conservative (18%). But Newport adds: "Americans' views of the bias in news media are highly related -- as would be expected -- to underlying political orientation."
Lastly, one of the most fascinating findings is that Americans are far less skeptical of their local news media outlet than they are the national media. This is nothing new, of course, but it shows the extent to which "NIMBY" – Not In My Backyard – sentiment can extends into people's media views. The larger, more distant and more vague the entity – in this case, The Media instead of your newspaper or local station – the easier it is to loathe. It's much why people tend to give failing marks to Congress but give their local Congressman or Congresswoman the benefit of the doubt.
So there you have it, readers, the media ground rules are set for the upcoming 2008 election campaign. And as usual, the right will take on the media, while the left will not make it an issue. (Most recently in last night's GOP debate with Fred Thompson feeling no reluctance to push back on Chris Matthews.)