NYT: 153 campaign reporters surveyed -- weird biases!

[grasswire]

A NYT reporter did an unofficial anonymous survey of campaign reporters at the convention and got 153 responses.

The major finding was that reporters overwhelmingly say that Kerry would make a better president, but a majority also claim that they would rather cover a Bush presidency than a Kerry presidency.

Which raises the question: did the American media allow Bush to be president simply because he would provide more NEWS than a competent and stable Democratic White House would provide?

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/08/01/politics/campaign/01points.html

When asked who would be a better president, the journalists from outside the Beltway picked Mr. Kerry 3 to 1, and the ones from Washington favored him 12 to 1. Those results jibe with previous surveys over the past two decades showing that journalists tend to be Democrats, especially the ones based in Washington. Some surveys have found that more than 80 percent of the Beltway press corps votes Democratic.

But political ideology isn't the only possible bias. Journalists also have a professional bias: they need good stories to make the front page and get on the air. So we asked our respondents which administration they'd prefer to cover the next four years strictly from a journalistic standpoint. We expected the Washington journalists to strongly prefer Mr. Kerry, partly because they complain so much about the difficulty of getting leaks from the Bush White House, but mainly because any change in administration means lots of news.

Sure enough, the Washington respondents said they would rather cover Mr. Kerry, but by a fairly small amount, 27 to 21, and the other journalists picked Bush, 56 to 40. (A few others had no opinion.) The overall result was 77 for Bush, 67 for Mr. Kerry.

Why stick with the Bush administration? "You can't ask for a richer cast of characters to cover," one Washington correspondent said. "Kerry will be a bore after these guys."

[serryjw]

1. Truly scary.......

quote
(A few others had no opinion.
end quote........

When journalists have NO opinion? They have been around the WH too long.

[UTUSN]

2. Same as What Some Comedians Say

that Shrub gives more material. What a way to run a country.

[Doctor_J]

3. if you don't think the country is in trouble,

this should change your mind.

[AlCzervik]

4. I'm sure SNL would also rather keep

* in office for the material but it's time for these shitheads to think about whats best for the country and not for their columns.

[Johnny Arson]

5. There was a sketch on Conan

in 2000 where a writer came out and asked the audience to vote for Bush because he wanted to sit on his ass for the next 4 years. Some kind of thing, I guess.

[mohinoaklawnillinois]

6. This is just too scary....

"Why stick with the Bush administration? "You can't ask for a richer cast of characters to cover," one Washington correspondent said. "Kerry will be a bore after these guys."

This is what motivates the members of the Fourth Estate, "a richer cast of characters"?

That might be fine with journalists, who I'm sure don't have to worry about paying their mortgages or rent, have good healthcare and can afford to send their children to decent schools and don't have to be concerned about their jobs being "outsourced".

Hey wankers, your job is to inform the American people about what is really going on, not to worry if an Administration will have "a richer cast of characters" or be "boring".

[DeepModem Mom]

7. Oh, my dear God! This is the free press the Founding Fathers protected...

with our Constitution, and what it has come to? The Fathers must be spinning in their graves, as the system they set in place hangs by a precarious thread, and these "cool kids" do nothing because they would throw it all away rather than be bored, dude.

[zydeco]

8. I guess they will miss receiving what to report,

how to report, and when to report it memos from the * admin. This country needs to fire all the "reporters" and start with some actual reporters.

[zbdent]

9. What, they'd rather cover a Bush presidency than a Kerry?

I guess that when you are handed exactly what to write, then it's easy to do your job.

Hmm, maybe I can get my boss to write my programs for me, and then I can just add a remark and then take all the credit.

Wow, I bet that would be easy.

[grasswire]

10. I believe I heard this expressed....

...during the Gore-Bush campaign, too.

But here we have it in black and white. No sense of civil responsibility at all.