Media Matters Study on Religious Bias in the Media

John Wick
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Media Matters Study on Religious Bias in the Media

A bit of a redundant title, I admit. Also, I'm always skeptical of any organization with a clear political agenda.

But if you check out their recent study (http://mediamatters.org/leftbehind/online_version/), they found some interesting facts.

  • Combining newspapers and television, conservative religious leaders were quoted, mentioned, or interviewed in news stories 2.8 times as often as were progressive religious leaders.
  • On television news -- the three major television networks, the three major cable news channels, and PBS -- conservative religious leaders were quoted, mentioned, or interviewed almost 3.8 times as often as progressive leaders.
  • In major newspapers, conservative religious leaders were quoted, mentioned, or interviewed 2.7 times as often as progressive leaders.

And this:

According to a 2006 survey by the Center for American Values in Public Life, only 22 percent of Americans are traditionalist in their religious beliefs, whereas a full 50 percent of Americans can be classified as centrist in their religious orientation, 18 percent as modernist, and 10 percent as secular or nonreligious. According to the Pew Research Center, in 2004, evangelicals represented 23 percent of Americans, the same percentage as reported in 2000.

At least they show their work. (Lots of links to the studies they cite.)

I'm still studying the numbers, seeing if it's a fair cop, but so far, I haven't really found anything that stands out as a cheat.

Enjoy!

 


theotherguy
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wow, so this means we are

wow, so this means we are about half as numerous as evangelicals? Wink


rab
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Last week I listened to

Last week I listened to State of Belief, a radio show hosted by Rev. Welton Gaddy, founder of The Interfaith Alliance.

He interviewed the man that did this study. Rev. Gaddy told him that he asked a reporter why they have these evangelicals on their news shows all the time, and the reporter replied it was because everybody in the news department gets a laugh out of them--"they're clowns."

On another show today I heard one of the hosts say that he wondered, since these right wing evangelicals have a pipeline to the White House, if we'll see more liberal or progressive religious commentators if a democratic gets elected in 08.  

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