Old Media Impact on Indies Has Diminished
The area boxed in red below from a Gallup report ought to give pause to leftist politicians who think that traditional Media water-carrying on their behalf will have the same impact it did in 2006:
The old saw is that elections are won by persuading independent voters to come over to your candidate. Only 41% of independents have a “great deal” or “fair amount” of trust and confidence in the (traditional Old) News Media. That’s down a bunch from 49% a year ago.
That means leftists are going to have to get more of the indie vote the old-fashioned way: They’ll have to get their message out on their own, something moderates and conservatives have had to do, despite Old Media barriers, for generations.
Cross-posted at Wide Open.
From Gallup: “One reason for this general distrust of the media is the fact that only about a third of Americans today say that the news media are “just about right” when it comes to ideological balance. More than twice as many Americans say the news media are too liberal (45%) rather than too conservative (18%).”
Now, the term ideological balance doesn’t necessarily mean 50/50. It means, whatever the perceived existing ratio of ideological bias present, it is “just about right.” So what is that perceived balance? A majority think that it is 45:18 or 2.5:1 liberal to conservative. So ~1/3 of respondents think that a 2.5:1 ratio of liberal to conservative is “just about right.”
If one thinks that that the ideological balance is “just about right” then, that group’s opinions should be relatively stable. Which group’s opinion are relatively stable? Democrats. So Democrats think that the ratio should be > or = 2.5:1. By virtue of decreasing trust, Independents and Republicans believe that the balance should be less than 2.5:1; and, at least 45% of respondents think it should be more conservative.
All this goes to show that about 78% acknowledge a liberal bias; and, at least 1/2 are OK with it, but 18% think it should be more. This latter group of “flat Earthers” is scary in that they actually think that MSNBC, CBS, AirAmerica, and the NYT are objective to too conservative(!) - and almost all are ultra-leftists (cum Democrats) - and they walk among us.
Cross-posted on Wide Open.
Comment by Joe C. — October 9, 2007 @ 12:13 pm