Gallup Poll Analyses – Are the News Media Too Liberal?

Here’s an interesting study just released by the Gallup Organization showing how American’s view the bias of their media (and, we assume more specifically, news coverage). Almost half of those surveyed felt the media’s bias leaned too much to the left, while nearly 40% of those surveyed thought it was about right. A significantly smaller slice of the public thought the media was too conservative.

Looking inside these numbers reveals some interesting facts, as well. Of those people surveyed who consider themselves to be “liberal”, nearly one in five thought the media’s bias was still “too liberal” while half felt the media gets it about right. Of those Americans who identified themselves as “conservatives,” on the other hand, 29% felt the US media got it right and only 9% felt the media went too far to the political right.

What’s this mean? Two things:

1) Fox News’ intuition/market research identified a significant market when they spotted a need for what they call “fair and balanced reporting” and what many others call “conservative news bias” among a significant population of Americans. By playing to relatively common perceptions, Fox News has been able to carve out a lucrative niche.

2) Americans are becoming more savvy news consumers whether they like it or not.

All news reporting, for that matter all media, has some kind of editorial bias. It has to. People need a plot to follow in order to stay engaged and in the news business it means you have to have a point or focus to the story. There’s nothing wrong with that as long as you know what you’re getting yourself into.

What erodes the trust in the media (which has eroded over the past 25 years, by the way) is the inability or unwillingness of the media to identify their point-of-view and consistently stand behind it. Instead, many media outlets have insisted on fighting a losing battle – claiming impartiality and then waffling from one position to the next.

When we talk about brand value, we explain that value is built by consistency in execution and point of view. A brand depreciates when a company’s actions (or, in this case, positions) are inconsistent with what’s been said and done in the past.

If the media wants to build credibility, it needs to come out of its closet and admit to editorial bias.

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