Right-Wing Bias at C-Span

[Eric J in MN]

FAIR, publisher of "Extra!," did a study of C-Span's "Washington Journal:"

To test C-SPAN’s claims of fairness, Extra! studied Washington Journal’s guestlist, tabulating all 663 guests that appeared on the show in the six-month period from November 1, 2004 to April 30, 2005.

...Despite its declaration of balance, the Washington Journal hosted journalists from right-leaning opinion magazines more often than it did those from the left. For instance, the conservative Weekly Standard furnished three guests, as did the like-minded National Review (including National Review Online). Only two guests from the liberal American Prospect were invited on the Journal, and only one guest from the left-leaning Nation.

When opinion journalists from all outlets were included, the right-leaning bias was nearly as strong: 32 right-of-center journalists appeared, vs. 19 left-of-center reporters (even counting editor Peter Beinart, the New Republic’s pro-war editor, as being on the left). Perhaps this tilt to the right could be rationalized if right-wing magazines were distinctly more popular than their counterparts on the left, but the reverse seems to be true; Mother Jones and The Nation both best National Review’s circulation numbers by a wide margin, and The Progressive outsells the Weekly Standard and American Spectator.

[ck4829]

1. The 'liberal' Media strikes again

[GrumpyGreg]

2. Say it isn't so,C-SPAN-----or should I say C-SPAM?

[EFerrari]

3. Thanks, Eric. Bookmarking for future ref

N&K

:kick:

[Eric J in MN]

5. You're welcome (nt)

nt

[in_cog_ni_to]

4. EMAIL the study to them! They need to know WE KNOW what they're doing.

[e-mail]

[Eric J in MN]

8. Good idea.

I emailed and added the address at SpeakSpeak:
http://www.speakspeak.org/speak-blog/2005/12/05/right-wing-bias-at-c-span/

[KharmaTrain]

6. I've Been Noting This Here For Months

Glad to see someone else picked up on some of it. An excellent article. I'd love to see some DU'er confront one of the hosts (preferably Peter) and see how they spin their way out of this.

I've been long convinced this show has been used to astroturf "issues" into the corporate media...part of the Rovian network. Something said on C-SPAN...be it from a right wing guest or planted phone call then is picked up by hate radio ("I just heard on C-SPAN this morning) then blogged and into the night time cable food fights.

There's a bunch of things I think they missed here...but there's so much to cover and the fact it has been brough out makes me feel I'm not as crazy as I know I am.

[Catherine Vincent]

7. And they continually have guests from the American Enterprise Institute

They're right wing. I love Brian Lamb but someone should point this out to him, I'd love to hear what he has to say about that. I just hope he doesn't get pissed off and stop inviting liberals all together. I think he would do it!:)