Why Are Journalists Liberal?

Marvin Olasky has a very interesting analysis of the changes in news coverages in the current issue of WORLD magazine. Here is an excerpt--to read the entire piece, click here.

Liberal media bias is so obvious that it’s hardly worth writing about it anymore. I had also thought the trend obvious: At least conservatives have Fox News now, and its ability to nudge the public conversation a little rightward. But Pete Wehner in Commentary last week put forth the interesting proposition that Fox may be making liberal journalists less subtle in their tilting.

Here’s what Wehner wrote, “For decades progressives had a monopoly on news, which meant they were content to slant the news but not routinely cross the line into advocacy. But now that Fox News has offered not only a different perspective, but a popular one, journalists may feel they must, in order to compensate for their loss of influence, increase their liberal advocacy.” I suspect that’s true.

The question remains: Why are the overwhelming majority of big-time journalists liberal? Wehner writes, “more and more ‘objective’ journalists seem to feel that liberalism is synonymous with social justice and they want to be in the midst of the fight to advance it. Hence we see people like Bob Schieffer and Tom Brokaw–who once upon a time would have actually tried to keep their biases reasonably in check–frame the issue over gun control as if we’re in Selma in 1965.”