MSNBC bias towards Democrats? Some statistics.

mindseye

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Over the four day period this week from February 2-February 5, a Monday-Thursday news cycle, ThinkProgress.org documented for five news networks the occurrences of interviews with members of Congress over the economic stimulus package. The complete list of appearances and times can be found here, but here's the summary. I don't know why their headline says "Senate", when members of both houses were included in the study:


Code:
[FONT=Courier New]Network    Appearances by Republicans ...by Democrats
=====================================================
CNBC       14 (70.0%)                  6 (30.0%)
FOX Bus.   20 (83.3%)                  4 (16.7%)
FOX News   24 (68.6%)                 11 (31.4%)
CNN         5 (62.5%)                  3 (37.5%)
MSNBC      12 (41.4%)                 17*(58.6%)[/FONT]

* This includes an appearance by Bernie Sanders (I-VT).

Two observations:


  • I'll start with some unexpected kudos to FOX: they had the highest overall total of appearances by actual members of Congress: 35. MSNBC was second with 29. For getting information from the horse's mouth and not from pundits, FOX got -- well, six more horses. I'm stunned at CNN's showing in this regard.
  • It's true that MSNBC was the only network to have more Democratic politicians on than Republicans. But they were the network that came closest to a 50-50 balance, and they were the network that came closest to the actual membership of Congress (58.8-41.2, counting Sanders and Lieberman with Democrats). CNN came in second in this regard, although their sample size was so small that a switch of just one person would have sent them all the way down to fourth.
This data measures only one broadcast week, and there are other measures of network bias than their choice of Congressional guests. But this set of data indicates that while MSNBC may indeed be further to the left than these other four networks, they are also closer to the center than the other four networks.
 

faceking

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1. We already know MSNBC is trying to become a blantant liberal outlet vs the "stealth" outlets of ABC, CBS, NBC, NPR, CNN. and good for them, actually.
2. It's a 4 day newscycle... there are sooooooo many variables in here, that I'm not going to bother with the numbers.... I can already surmise via generality.

I hope to God the left pushes for the Fairness Doctrine. I triple dog dare them.
 

mindseye

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believe just counting the number of appearances is not dispositive

that would just be the start of an analysis

Granted. That's why I said "some" statistics in my title, and not (for example) "absolute grand slam" or "proof", and acknowledged in my last paragraph how limited the study was. Someone has to create honest threads around here.

On the other hand, an example isn't enough to prove a hypothesis, but it can disprove one.
 

Cowabanga

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Face king you need to share that desire to your Republican friends. The govt doesn't own the media, and certainly not the Democrats. MSNBC were the only one that showed the inaguration with live sound. While the other station pipe in prerecorded sound. As far as I know the MSNBC were the only one that aired the booing of Bush as he was leaving the house.
 

devron

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One interesting stat would be not appearances, but number of minutes allotted to each. One thing that put me off MSNBC this last year was their incorporation of the Foxnews tactic of never letting the dissenting view actually say anything. One of the more blatant examples is them cutting off the Republican congressmen's media address after the Detroit breakdown while letting the UAW spokesman rant for about 5 minutes.
 

B_24065

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Over the four day period this week from February 2-February 5, a Monday-Thursday news cycle, ThinkProgress.org documented for five news networks the occurrences of interviews with members of Congress over the economic stimulus package. The complete list of appearances and times can be found here, but here's the summary. I don't know why their headline says "Senate", when members of both houses were included in the study:


Code:
[FONT=Courier New]Network    Appearances by Republicans ...by Democrats[/FONT]
[FONT=Courier New]=====================================================[/FONT]
[FONT=Courier New]CNBC       14 (70.0%)                  6 (30.0%)[/FONT]
[FONT=Courier New]FOX Bus.   20 (83.3%)                  4 (16.7%)[/FONT]
[FONT=Courier New]FOX News   24 (68.6%)                 11 (31.4%)[/FONT]
[FONT=Courier New]CNN         5 (62.5%)                  3 (37.5%)[/FONT]
[FONT=Courier New]MSNBC      12 (41.4%)                 17*(58.6%)[/FONT]

* This includes an appearance by Bernie Sanders (I-VT).

Two observations:


  • I'll start with some unexpected kudos to FOX: they had the highest overall total of appearances by actual members of Congress: 35. MSNBC was second with 29. For getting information from the horse's mouth and not from pundits, FOX got -- well, six more horses. I'm stunned at CNN's showing in this regard.
  • It's true that MSNBC was the only network to have more Democratic politicians on than Republicans. But they were the network that came closest to a 50-50 balance, and they were the network that came closest to the actual membership of Congress (58.8-41.2, counting Sanders and Lieberman with Democrats). CNN came in second in this regard, although their sample size was so small that a switch of just one person would have sent them all the way down to fourth.
This data measures only one broadcast week, and there are other measures of network bias than their choice of Congressional guests. But this set of data indicates that while MSNBC may indeed be further to the left than these other four networks, they are also closer to the center than the other four networks.

If anything, this only proves that Fox is way more balanced then MSNBC. Here is why. The reason the stimulus bill has been huge news over the last week is because of total republican opposition to it, and therefore it has been stalled. Therefore it makes more sense to interview the opposing party (the one causing all the stink) then it does the majority party. This is why CNBC, CNN, and FOX biz all followed the same pattern. And to suggest that MSNBC is closer to the center then CNN is simply absurd. NO ONE, and I mean NO ONE including Ted Turner thinks CNN is a Center-right news outlet. MSNBC is so much further to the left then FOX is to the right. I'll admit that FOX's primetime line up is Right and MSNBC's is left. But their news reporting is where the clear difference is. Fox's news reporting is very close to CNN's where as MSNBC's is clearly slanted to the left IMO. Hell, they have a commercial that claims that they are the news outlet that has "embraced Change" for America. Thats gross.
 

chadstallion

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so that explains why I like MSNBC so much!
My favorite Tivo moments are the evenings when Billo and Keith are shown at the same time. Tivo records both; I can switch back/forth between programs; often hearing the same story but with left/right slants. Its a great way to watch the 'news' :)
 

mindseye

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If anything, this only proves that Fox is way more balanced then MSNBC. Here is why. The reason the stimulus bill has been huge news over the last week is because of total republican opposition to it, and therefore it has been stalled.

Nice try. Valiant effort, Tom.

9/11 was huge news, too, and the reason it was huge news was because of terrorist opposition. How many terrorists -- and I mean Islamic terrorists, not Republicans -- did they interview that week?
 

D_Chaumbrelayne_Copprehead

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I hope to God the left pushes for the Fairness Doctrine. I triple dog dare them.

Dream on, bud. Aside from a smattering of folks on the left, there's not enough demand to bring back the fairness doctrine.

You know who's talking the most about the fairness doctrine? Right-wing talk show hosts. It's an easy topic to stir up their hard-core fans.
 

Denby

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Over the four day period this week from February 2-February 5, a Monday-Thursday news cycle, ThinkProgress.org documented for five news networks the occurrences of interviews with members of Congress over the economic stimulus package. The complete list of appearances and times can be found here, but here's the summary. I don't know why their headline says "Senate", when members of both houses were included in the study:


Code:
[FONT=Courier New]Network    Appearances by Republicans ...by Democrats[/FONT]
[FONT=Courier New]=====================================================[/FONT]
[FONT=Courier New]CNBC       14 (70.0%)                  6 (30.0%)[/FONT]
[FONT=Courier New]FOX Bus.   20 (83.3%)                  4 (16.7%)[/FONT]
[FONT=Courier New]FOX News   24 (68.6%)                 11 (31.4%)[/FONT]
[FONT=Courier New]CNN         5 (62.5%)                  3 (37.5%)[/FONT]
[FONT=Courier New]MSNBC      12 (41.4%)                 17*(58.6%)[/FONT]

* This includes an appearance by Bernie Sanders (I-VT).

Two observations:


  • I'll start with some unexpected kudos to FOX: they had the highest overall total of appearances by actual members of Congress: 35. MSNBC was second with 29. For getting information from the horse's mouth and not from pundits, FOX got -- well, six more horses. I'm stunned at CNN's showing in this regard.
  • It's true that MSNBC was the only network to have more Democratic politicians on than Republicans. But they were the network that came closest to a 50-50 balance, and they were the network that came closest to the actual membership of Congress (58.8-41.2, counting Sanders and Lieberman with Democrats). CNN came in second in this regard, although their sample size was so small that a switch of just one person would have sent them all the way down to fourth.
This data measures only one broadcast week, and there are other measures of network bias than their choice of Congressional guests. But this set of data indicates that while MSNBC may indeed be further to the left than these other four networks, they are also closer to the center than the other four networks.
MSNBC at times to me feels more biased in its presentation. This feeling declines dramatically when I cease watching Olbermann on MSNBC and O'Reilly on Fox.
 

mindseye

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MSNBC at times to me feels more biased in its presentation. This feeling declines dramatically when I cease watching Olbermann on MSNBC and O'Reilly on Fox.

You know, Countdown is one hour long. Morning Joe is a three hourshow. Has Fox got anything comparable to Morning Joe for the left?

(Pssst...MSNBC: quit with the crappy reruns of Lock-Up and The Chris Hansen Pedo Parade. Give Chuck Todd his own show. Drag Joel McHale over from E and give him a late-night talk show. And see if Tim Robbins is interested in producing anything that'll make right-wingers' heads explode.)
 

Denby

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And see if Tim Robbins is interested in producing anything that'll make right-wingers' heads explode.)
I mentioned the name Tim Robbins just yesterday afternoon to a far far right conservative and he went ballistic. I knew he would which is why I did it.
 

B_24065

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Nice try. Valiant effort, Tom.

9/11 was huge news, too, and the reason it was huge news was because of terrorist opposition. How many terrorists -- and I mean Islamic terrorists, not Republicans -- did they interview that week?

Osama, Al Zawahiri and the rest were unavailable for interviews.

Im surprised you would post something so stupid. Two different animals here mindseyes...like apples and underwear.
 

BiItalianBro

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1. We already know MSNBC is trying to become a blantant liberal outlet vs the "stealth" outlets of ABC, CBS, NBC, NPR, CNN. and good for them, actually.

There is nothing "stealth" about National Proletariat Radio (NPR) lol :cool:

Here is a concept: why dont we push it back onto the voter/consumer to research issues from multiple outlets and make their OWN informed decisions???!!!?? :eek::eek::eek:

Every news outlet is going to speak to its own demographic, juzsus, its all about money anyway. The Fairness Doc just reeks of Big Brother-ism and assumes the Average Joe(sephine) is too stupid/lazy to seek out information on their own. And if that is the case, then we will elect, and get, the Government we deserve.
 

faceking

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Dream on, bud. Aside from a smattering of folks on the left, there's not enough demand to bring back the fairness doctrine.

You know who's talking the most about the fairness doctrine? Right-wing talk show hosts. It's an easy topic to stir up their hard-core fans.

Eh.... I wouldn't be so sure... there are quite a few nutjobs out there that'll push for it (mostly from my area).