esmaspäev, mai 24, 2004
Ideological Diversity
In his online chat today, Howard Kurtz got a few questions like this:
Columbia, Md.: The Pew Center just released a report yesterday that showed that when it comes to journalists, liberals outnumber conservatives by an almost 5 to 1 margin. I am sure there is an effort by the editors of major news organizations to have racial diversity and gender diversity to reflect to public at large to the greatest extent possible and that is surely a worthwhile goal. But are these editors making the same concerted effort to get some sort of ideological diversity that reflects the public at large as well? We always hear that this nation is divided 50-50, shouldn't the newsrooms also be divided 50-50?
Shut up. Just shut up.
Seriously, is there some vast pool of talented, objective conservative-leaning reporters out there who can't find a job? I don't know of anyone who was ever asked their political views before being hired by the New York Times. Or by Fox News for that matter. Have these morons ever considered that there aren't that many conservative reporters because not many conservatives want to be reporters? Is that hard to believe? We're talking about a low-paying profession that conservatives piss on daily because they hate the press so much. How many of them do you expect to want to get into it? You want to make newsrooms 50-50? Well, first of all, most reporters are moderates, so that ratio doesn't work. But you've got 30% liberals. Find me enough conservative journalist to fill up 30% of the newsroom, then we'll talk.
I've always felt this way about complaints of liberal bias at colleges, too. Everytime you read one of those stories, you've got numerous university officials explaining that ideology doesn't even come up in the applications process. They don't know if applicants are conservative or liberal. It's a self-selecting group. Are there so many good, intelligent conservative teachers out there looking for work? Are they having doors slammed in their faces because they dare to mention their support for Bush during an interview? Or do they just not want to sign up for a low-paying public service job?
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In his online chat today, Howard Kurtz got a few questions like this:
Columbia, Md.: The Pew Center just released a report yesterday that showed that when it comes to journalists, liberals outnumber conservatives by an almost 5 to 1 margin. I am sure there is an effort by the editors of major news organizations to have racial diversity and gender diversity to reflect to public at large to the greatest extent possible and that is surely a worthwhile goal. But are these editors making the same concerted effort to get some sort of ideological diversity that reflects the public at large as well? We always hear that this nation is divided 50-50, shouldn't the newsrooms also be divided 50-50?
Shut up. Just shut up.
Seriously, is there some vast pool of talented, objective conservative-leaning reporters out there who can't find a job? I don't know of anyone who was ever asked their political views before being hired by the New York Times. Or by Fox News for that matter. Have these morons ever considered that there aren't that many conservative reporters because not many conservatives want to be reporters? Is that hard to believe? We're talking about a low-paying profession that conservatives piss on daily because they hate the press so much. How many of them do you expect to want to get into it? You want to make newsrooms 50-50? Well, first of all, most reporters are moderates, so that ratio doesn't work. But you've got 30% liberals. Find me enough conservative journalist to fill up 30% of the newsroom, then we'll talk.
I've always felt this way about complaints of liberal bias at colleges, too. Everytime you read one of those stories, you've got numerous university officials explaining that ideology doesn't even come up in the applications process. They don't know if applicants are conservative or liberal. It's a self-selecting group. Are there so many good, intelligent conservative teachers out there looking for work? Are they having doors slammed in their faces because they dare to mention their support for Bush during an interview? Or do they just not want to sign up for a low-paying public service job?
