Perception That Media Are Too Conservative Up Slightly Since 2001

GALLUP NEWS SERVICE

PRINCETON, NJ -- The American public continues to be more likely to say the news media are too liberal rather than too conservative or about right, according to a recent Gallup poll. But, in recent years, Americans with the minority view that the media are too conservative has gradually grown. Political views shape Americans' feelings toward the news media. Republicans and conservatives are strongly likely to say that the media are too liberal. Democrats and liberals, however, are not strongly likely to say the media are too conservative, but rather are most inclined to say the media is just about right.

Since 2001, Gallup has asked Americans on an annual basis whether they think the news media are too liberal, just about right, or too conservative. The most recent survey, conducted Sep. 7-10, finds that 44% of Americans say the news media are too liberal, 19% say the media are too conservative, and 33% say they are just about right. While this basic pattern has been evident since this question was first asked five years ago, there has been a gradual increase in Americans' assessment that the media are too conservative. In 2001, 11% of Americans said the media are too conservative, compared with 19% this year. At the same time, there has been little change in Americans' perceptions that the media are too liberal.

The slight increase in views that the news media are too conservative comes primarily among Democrats and self-identified liberals and moderates.

Eleven percent of Democrats in Gallup's 2001 survey described the news media as too conservative. This sentiment has increased 15 points since then, to 26% in the latest poll. Views that the news media are too conservative increased slightly among independents over this time period. There has been no change in views among Republicans.

Self-identified liberals are also more likely now than they were in 2001 to describe the news media as too conservative, up from 25% to 39%. This sentiment increased 10 points among self-identified moderates, from 8% to 18%. Conservatives show little change in their views that the news media are too conservative.

Since the basic results to this question have shown only modest variation in recent years, Gallup combined the results of its past four surveys, from 2003 through 2006, to better examine how political attitudes influence views of the news media.

This analysis shows that the vast majority of Republicans -- 77% -- say the news media are too liberal. Democrats, however, are not equally likely to say that the media are too conservative. Democrats instead are evenly divided as to whether the media are too liberal (20%) or too conservative (23%), with slightly more than half saying they are about right. Independents are twice as likely to say the media are too liberal (40%) rather than too conservative (19%); 37% of independents say the media are just about right.

Roughly two in three self-identified conservatives (68%) say the media are too liberal, and only 6% say the media are too conservative. By comparison, liberals are more than twice as likely to describe the news media as too conservative (37%) than too liberal (16%), with the plurality saying the media is just about right. More moderates view the media as more liberal than conservative, but moderates most frequently tell Gallup the media are about right.

Segmenting the public by a combination of both party and ideology produces the greatest variation in views of the news media. Eighty-two percent of conservative Republicans tell Gallup that the media are too liberal and only 3% say too conservative. Liberal Democrats are the most likely group to say the media are too conservative -- 40% say the media are too conservative and just 12% say too liberal.

Survey Methods

The latest results are based on telephone interviews with a randomly selected national sample of 1,002 adults, aged 18 and older, conducted September 7-10, 2006. For results based on this sample, one can say with 95% confidence that the maximum error attributable to sampling and other random effects is ±3 percentage points.

For results based on the sample of more than 3,900 adults, aged 18 and older, conducted across four polls from September 2003 through September 2006, the maximum margin of sampling error is ±2 percentage points.

In addition to sampling error, question wording and practical difficulties in conducting surveys can introduce error or bias into the findings of public opinion polls.