COUNTERCOLUMN: All Your Bias Are Belong to Us

More fascinating data on the increasing polarization of American politics, as manifest in their news choices.

Most interesting findings:

--CNN remains the cable news outlet ranked most reliable by Democrats, FOX News by Republicans. But look at the question! It's expressed as the number of people who believe they can believe most or all of what they see or read from these outlets. And no outlet even scored a majority, even within either party.

--Less than 1 out of 6 Republicans regularly watch (listen to?) Rush Limbaugh. Bill O'Reilly actually has a higher market share now than Limbaugh, among Republicans.

--Since 2000, the number of Americans who regularly watch Fox News has increased by nearly half from 17% to 25% while audiences for other cable outlets have been flat at best.

--The Wall Street Journal's credibility with the American people--once very high in both parties--has tanked. Badly. In 2000, 46% of Republicans and 40% of Democrats found it credible. Now it even ranks lower than CNN among Republicans, at 29%. And at 23% of Democrats. Something has gone very, very wrong at the Journal.

--NPR has likewise lost points with viewers/listeners on both sides of the aisle, though not to the same precipitous extent as the Journal has.

--There are no figures for the Washington Post, nor anything on the New York Times in prior years.

--29% of people get their news online 3 or more days/week.

--Democrats are more than twice as likely to find the New York Times credible as Republicans (30%-14%.) Think about that for a moment. True, there is a small cottage industry of people out there bashing on the New York Times (they make it so easy.) But it's still a cottage industry, and almost entirely through alternative news sources such as the Internet. 76% of Republicans do NOT find the New York Times reliable. Since Limbaugh and O'Reilly only reach 14-16% of Republicans, and only 29% are getting their news from the Internet, that leaves a huge swathe of Republicans who likely came to their judgement of the New York Times independently.

So the Times can't blame "Right Wing Hate Sites" like I've seen lefties do so often.

By the same token, a large number of Republicans came to the same conclusion about the Wall Street Journal. There is no similar cottage industry debunking the Journal among conservatives. Large numbers of Republicans simply trashed the Journal independently over the last few years. Same goes with Democrats. There is a small cottage industry critiquing the Journal in the Democratic blogosphere--but it is nowhere near as established or prominent as the New York Times watchdogs. Democrats appear to have rejected the Wall Street Journal at the grassroots level, without having their opinions shaped by any prominent voice I can identify.

--Six-in-ten Americans age 65 and older say they read a newspaper on a typical day, compared with just 23% of those under age 30. (Note to self: multiple dailies in anything but the hugest markets are going the way of the dodo bird, right along with Social Security as we know it today--and for the same reason: Demographics.

--"More than half (53%) agree with the statement "I often don't trust what news organizations are saying." Nearly as many (48%) believe people who decide on news content are "out of touch." "

DUH!!!! Most major media organizations are headquartered, staffed, produced, sponsored, and written, and fed at inflated prices on expense accounts in a fantasy construct called Manhattan, built and carried on the backs of shareholders across the country. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out why these outlets are out of touch when half of their rank and file staffers don't even own cars and live in the biggest echo chamber in the history of mankind.

Oh, and my favorite: USA Today gets a higher credibility rating than does the New York Times. I'm sure they're having conniption fits. When they're not busy looking down their noses at the same unwashed, ignorant masses in the square states who elected Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush.

Heheheheh.

Splash, out

Jason