From: gary@colossus.cgd.ucar.edu (Gary Strand)
Subject: Re: CNN Anchor Admits Pro-Clinton Bias
Organization: Climate and Global Dynamics Division/NCAR, Boulder, CO
Distribution: usa
Date: Wed, 9 Sep 1992 23:07:48 GMT

dp> Don Pajerek

dp> Polls consistently show that, on most issues, the American public is pret-
dp> ty much middle of the road, with a slight leftward tilt, when questioned 
dp> ON SPECIFIC ISSUES.

  Not necessarily true. Political opinion differs from region to region, from
  age group to age group, from one race to another, and between men and women.
  I wouldn't call the average US position as having a "leftward" tilt, rather,
  it's tilted very strongly toward the "I want all of the benefits and none of
  the costs" position.

dp> For example, support for the continuation of Social Security is massive.

  So long as SS taxes stay low and people think they're going to benefit from
  it. Also note that older Americans wield political power disproportionate
  to their numbers, and SS is their baby.

dp> Also, support for some sort of National Health Insurance is also a sizable
dp> majority.

  Again, so long as it costs little and benefits much.

dp> Ditto for abortion and other issues that tend to split along left/right
dp> lines.

  You failed to note, however, that the liberal view on abortion and the aver-
  age US view on abortion are different, in that most Americans believe that
  some restrictions are desirable, for example, parental notification, wait-
  ing periods, etc., whereas liberals are generally in favor of unconditional
  abortion rights.

dp> Of course, if people are asked directly, 'Are you a liberal?', or 'Are you
dp> a socialist?', huge majorities answer 'no', having just professed their
dp> support for these various liberal positions. The current phrase that de-
dp> scribes this is 'ideologically conservative, operationally liberal'.

  And totally statist.

dp> The principal mass media consistently reflect this same 'bias', if the 
dp> long-held beliefs of the vast majority can be called a 'bias'. 

  No. The mass-media differs on a large number of issues with the majority.

dp> The problem that some Usenetters have is that they are truly conservative
dp> - clearly to the right of the majority - and to them, the media looks
dp> 'liberal'. 

  Old argument, and still incorrect. The media isn't biased toward the lib-
  eral view simply because crusty old conservatives are so far right every-
  thing looks liberal to them. Even media types admit they're liberals. What
  is so wrong with "admitting" this and simply letting facts be facts.

dp> As Peter Nelson and others have pointed out at length, the mass media
dp> wouldn't be 'mass' if it didn't have the approval of the majority.

  *Does* it have the approval of the "majority"? What fraction of the body
  politic watches/reads the mass media?

dp> Other viewpoints are available roughly in proportion to their occurrence
dp> in the population (e.g., National Review).

  Really? TIME magazine has a circulation of ~4.34 million. Reader's Digest
  is about 16 million. At most, a few million people watch the evening news
  on the big 3 networks. However, 90 million people voted for president in
  1988. The "mass" media is seen by only a fraction of the population as a
  whole.

dp> Note, BTW, that this supposed 'liberal' media 'bias' hasn't prevented the
dp> election of conservative Republican Presidents for the past 25 years or 
dp> so...

  LBJ and JFK are practically rabid Cold Warriors by the standards of today's
  liberals. Basically, sometime during the 70s, due in large part to the in-
  flux of young college-age individuals, the Democrats swung so far Left that
  they haven't had the White House but 4 years out of the last 24, and they
  lost their majority in the Senate between 1980 and 1986. However, they do
  tend to be better at bringing home the pork, so that's why they have a ma-
  jority in the House.

--
Gary Strand                      Opinions stated herein are mine alone and are
strandwg@ncar.ucar.edu            not representative of NCAR, UCAR, or the NSF