Media Matters: Black, White & Read All Over

It is a common canard used by the ideological right that the media is horribly slanted to the left and that anytime any policy or action is criticized by the media it can't be true because those dirty liberals like to lie about those poor conservatives. Of course anyone who actually keeps tabs on the media will quickly realize that is complete horseshit. Unfortunately most people do not have the time to watch news channels every minute of the day to make comparisons. Thankfully there are websites and groups who do such and a recent study shows that those rightwing crybabies who complain about not enough balance in the media are predictably full of shit.

Excerpted from Media Matters:

Sixty percent of the nation's daily newspapers print more conservative syndicated columnists every week than progressive syndicated columnists. Only 20 percent run more progressives than conservatives, while the remaining 20 percent are evenly balanced.

In a given week, nationally syndicated progressive columnists are published in newspapers with a combined total circulation of 125 million. Conservative columnists, on the other hand, are published in newspapers with a combined total circulation of more than 152 million.2

The top 10 columnists as ranked by the number of papers in which they are carried include five conservatives, two centrists, and only three progressives.

The top 10 columnists as ranked by the total circulation of the papers in which they are published also include five conservatives, two centrists, and only three progressives.

In 38 states, the conservative voice is greater than the progressive voice -- in other words, conservative columns reach more readers in total than progressive columns. In only 12 states is the progressive voice greater than the conservative voice.

In three out of the four broad regions of the country -- the West, the South, and the Midwest -- conservative syndicated columnists reach more readers than progressive syndicated columnists. Only in the Northeast do progressives reach more readers, and only by a margin of 2 percent.

In eight of the nine divisions into which the U.S. Census Bureau divides the country, conservative syndicated columnists reach more readers than progressive syndicated columnists in any given week. Only in the Middle Atlantic division do progressive columnists reach more readers each week.

This should be no suprise to those of us who pay attention. People with lot's of money run the media, and when they don't, like say publicly funded media, they try to bully publicly funded media into supporting their views.