Is Politico bias?
Hmm…this is a tough one…I’m still trying to figure this one out.
Lets look at some info:
Politico’s President and CEO, Fred Ryan, is a republican and former Assistant to President Ronald Regan. He is also the chairman of the Board for of Trustees of the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library Foundation.
Politico is also primarily funded by the Allbritton Company, which has been known to have some right-wing connections.
But during the 2008 presidential election, Politico was attacked for being too tough on Sen. John McCain and not tough enough on Barack Obama.
What’s going on?!?!
Since I’m just a blogger, let’s do some unscientific tests to see where Politico is on the political spectrum.
Time for some Word Clouds!!!
It’s simple. One story, three word clouds (one from the conservative media (Fox), one from the liberal media (MSNBC), and one from Politico.com), comparison.
Story: Senate votes against government-run health plan
Fox: Senate Finance Committee Votes Against Government-Run Health Insurance Plan
MSNBC: Senate panel rejects health ‘public option’
Politico: Public option fate in Obama’s hands
(Word Clouds compliments of Wordle.net)
hmmm…. they all look the same to me.
Wow, that didn’t work. And I spent a lot of time making those word clouds…
Well, since I’ve been going on Politico.com every day since Sept. 3, it looks pretty unbiased to me. They have conservatives and liberals writing for them and it still seems to be balanced. If after reading their stories for almost four weeks and not finding any significant biases, that has to tell you something.
When I was first assigned to follow Politico I was sure the site was going to lead either to the right or the left. I wasn’t expecting it to be impartial.
The site is all about giving you the latest information on politics without a hidden agenda. But this is what I think as of now. Maybe it will change later on this semester.
YAY for POLITICO (so far)!!!
I want to leave you a nice quote from the Politico story I posted at the beginning of this blog from editor-in-chief John F. Harris and executive editor Jim Vandehei of Politico on media bias:
“the subject of ideological bias in the news media is a drag. The people who care about it typically come at the issue with scalding biases of their own. Any statement journalists make on the subject can and will be used against them. So the incentive is to make bland and guarded statements. Even honest ones, meanwhile, will tend to strike partisans as evasive or self-delusional.”
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Check out another story Politico did here on media bias back in June.
