I've always been interested in politics even though my careers have led me in other directions. One of the claims that caught my interest long ago is that the broadcast media treats liberal candidates differently than conservative candidates. This supposed media bias didn't wash with me because media policy is made at the top of the corporate ladder, not by the reporters.
A common subject for talk radio, some political cartoonists, and many syndicated newspaper columnists is the claim that American media has a significant bias towards liberal politics. John Kass, columnist for the Chicago Tribune, invested his July 20, 2008 inches regaling the "liberal media" and William Tate posted his editorial July 25th on Drudge claiming that the news media contributed 100 times more money to Obama’s campaign than to McCain’s. Kass claims that the broadcast corporations slant the reporting and editorial commentary to the left, minimizing, or in some cases, not reporting the successes achieved by the conservatives while Tate provided an analysis of federal campaign records claiming that journalists have contributed $225,563 to Democrats while only $16,298 was given to Republicans.
Mr. Tate is absolutely correct in stating that you can get to the truth by following the money. That is true, of course, if you are examining the totality of the numbers and not cherry picking your data or using "fuzzy math" in your analysis. Tate does not tell us where he got his numbers, but I was stunned to see his claim that Fox and Fox News/Fox News Channel contributed a total of $41,853 to Democrats and zero dollars to Republicans.
According to the Center for Responsive Politics <www.opensecrets.org>, the broadcast industry has contributed just under $3,800,000 thus far in 2008. These contributions have been distributed quite evenly between the Democrats and Republicans at about 50% each. Previous election cycles have not shown this level of balance.
Of the $4,934,821 in contributions made by this industry in the 2006 election cycle, Democrats received 43% of the funds and Republicans received 57% of them. In 2004, $6,012,661 in political contributions was made. The distribution of funds was the same as for the 2006 cycle. These trends have substantially shifted from the previous election cycles in 2002 when 34% of the contributions from this industry went to Democrats and 66% of the money was given to Republicans; and in 2000 when 36% of contributions were made to Dems and 64% made to Republicans.
The Center for Responsive Politics has charted political contributions back through 1990. The distribution of funds from this industry has shifted between both political parties from cycle to cycle. However, in the end, this industry has contributed $15,294,057 to Democrats in this time frame and $20,800,331 to Republicans. In the long-term, the analysis of political contributions from this group shows that there is no liberal bias in the broadcast industry, rather the opposite exists.