A growing number of journalists are out of touch with their readers, a national survey released Monday by the respected Pew Research Center shows. The survey also confirms what some critics of the media have charged for years: An increasing proportion of those who shape news coverage are political liberals.
The survey of 547 national and local reporters, producers, editors, and executives across the United States addresses current issues facing journalism and updates trends from earlier surveys conducted in 1995 and 1999. The greatest differences between journalists and the public follow philosophical beliefs. Many more journalists identify themselves as liberals than as conservatives, while for the population as a whole the reverse is true.
The percentage of national journalists identifying themselves as liberals increased from 22 percent in 1995 to 34 percent today. The trend among local journalists has been similar; 23 percent say they are liberals, compared with 14 percent in 1995. Only 7 percent of national journalists, and 12 percent of local journalists, think of themselves as politically conservative. Majorities of national (54 percent) and local (61 percent) journalists continue to describe themselves as moderate.
Survey results of the public, on the other hand, show that self-identified moderates are a plurality but not a majority. Twenty percent of the public see themselves as liberal, while 33 percent consider themselves conservative.
The survey also revealed differences in moral values. About 60 percent of the public believes it is necessary to believe in God to be a truly moral person. But fewer than 15 percent of journalists believe that. About half of the public thinks society should accept homosexuality, while 80 percent of news people think so.
Following the liberal leanings of journalists, many of them think that the press has not been critical enough of President Bush. While the press gives itself about the same overall grade for its coverage of Bill Clinton (B minus among national journalists, C plus from local journalists), the criticism in 1995 was that the press was focusing too much on Clinton’s problems, and too little on his achievements.
As would be expected, fewer journalists today, compared with those in the 1999 study, express confidence in the political judgment of the public. Thirty-one percent of journalists in the recent survey say they have a great deal of confidence in the public’s election choices. Fifty-two percent reported feeling that way in the 1999 survey.
Paradoxically, by more than three to one, journalists think it is a bad thing if news organizations have a “decidedly ideological point of view” in their news coverage. And more than four in 10 journalists say news people too often let their ideological views show in their reporting.
Journalists themselves are unhappy with the way things are going in their profession, the survey says. About half of national journalists, 51 percent of them, and local journalists, 46 percent, think journalism is headed in the wrong direction. Many of them blame increased pressure to raise profits for their negative assessment of news operations. Sixty-six percent of national journalists, and 57 percent of local journalists took the dimmer view of their profession.
As a consequence of profit pressure and reduced staffing in newsrooms, almost half of national journalists thought the quality of news coverage has diminished. Forty-five percent in the recent survey thought news reports were full of factual errors. That is an increase from 30 percent in 1995 and 40 percent in 1999.
When asked about what is going well in journalism today, print and broadcast journalists have different views. TV and radio journalists most often mentioned the speed of coverage. Print journalists emphasized the quality of coverage and the watchdog role the press plays as the profession’s best features.
The survey was conducted March 10 to April 20 by the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press in collaboration with the Project for Excellence in Journalism and the Committee of Concerned Journalists.
Richard Wagner is the editor of Carolina Journal and the former editor of daily newspapers in North Carolina, Florida, and California.