The question of measuring media bias is one that has generated no little controversy over both definitions – what constitutes “the media”? What is “bias” – and methodology – how do we measure bias? As you might expect, there is room for disagreement even among scholars. Groseclose’s study is is one of the better efforts to get a handle on this question, but even his methodology has been the subject of debate. I addressed this issue in several earlier posts dealing with media bias, so won’t belabor my points, but I think a substantial number of readers would agree with you that the coverage of national election is skewed. In that regard, for instance, a Pew study of coverage of the 2008 election showed more favorable coverage toward Obama than to McCain. But even here one has to ask: does this reflect the media’s political bias? Maybe the skew indicates that Obama was running a better than expected campaign? All a long way of saying that I am not confident that it is possible to define bias or identify it in a way that everyone will find acceptable.

As I suggested in the post, I am generally skeptical of claims that media coverage at the national level skews left. In Bachmann’s case, I think there is a simpler explanation for why CBS anticipated giving her a lower debate profile – one rooted not in political bias but in the dictates of the news business. But in terms of individual preferences, there is strong, consistent evidence that journalists in the major national news outlets tend, on the whole, to possess political views more to the left of the viewing audience, and that this has been the case for several decades. This is subject to the usual caveats: how do we define ideology, what journalists are we talking about, etc. But there’s really not much debate over this. So, if we look at your measures of ideology, for instance, that same Pew study finds many more members of the general public describing themselves as conservative than do journalists. Similarly, we find that National Election Studies consistently show a greater proportion of the public classifying themselves as conservative than we see journalists in the category in the Pew study. so even by your own figures, journalists are clearly more liberal than the public. Now, that does not mean their coverage is necessarily slanted, which is the charge Republican often make. As I’ve blogged about before, that is a more difficult question to answer. But in terms of individual political views, the clear fact is that journalists on average tilt Left more than the public does.

And anyone who has worked in a newsroom for a long time, as I have, is hard put to identify the hardcore left-wing ideologues there that the right loves to whine about. Even those who say they are liberal or conservative are not deeply so and, being journalists,. always can see the other side.

I understand why Republicans need to demonize the media: it gives their followers something to hate, and it is an attempt to insulate GOp candidates from criticism. Herman Cain can mewl about his harsh treatment on the sex charges, all due to the liberal media, conveniently ignoring how the media trashed liberal icons Gary Hart, Bill Clinton, Eliott Spitzer and Anthony Weiner. Please.