Conservative-Funded Study: Fox News Gives Most Balanced Coverage

A study released this month by the Center for Media and Public Affairs (CMPA) at George Mason University found that Fox News Channel's evening coverage was more "balanced" than that of the broadcast networks. However, the objectivity of the CMPA, which bills itself as a nonpartisan media watchdog group, is questionable, as the Center for Media and Democracy's SourceWatch found that "nearly all its funding comes from conservative foundations."

The conservative-funded study, which also claimed that TV election news has been most critical of Hillary Clinton and friendliest to Mike Huckabee and Barack Obama, found the following on the balance of Fox's coverage:

Who's Fair and Balanced?: Fox News Channel's coverage was more balanced toward both parties than the broadcast networks were. On FOX, evaluations of all Democratic candidates combined were split almost evenly - 51% positive vs. 49% negative, as were all evaluations of GOP candidates - 49% positive vs. 51% negative, producing a perfectly balanced 50-50 split for all candidates of both parties.

On the three broadcast networks, opinion on Democratic candidates split 47% positive vs. 53% negative, while evaluations of Republicans were more negative - 40% positive vs. 60% negative. For both parties combined, network evaluations were almost 3 to 2 negative in tone, i.e. 41% positive vs. 59% negative.

To download a PDF of the report, click here.

Comments

[rwe]

HEY , If you guys are in misery with the truth now just wait until next Nov when Pres Mitt, or Johnny Mac is elected....You just orgasm in yur misery .. Look at the left hand side of Huffho... It is the Christmas season , libdumbnation is in control of congress and every progresso blog is in depression/misery/defeatocrat mode. People are watching the fair and balanced Fox, listening to Rush and Laura and Oreilly .

[JamesA1102]

The problem is they are confusing objectivity with balance. The job of journalists is to present the facts without bias. That is objectivity. It is not to present both sides of an issue as if each has equal validity because many times they don't.

[hootie1fan]

Fox's founder and president, Roger Ailes, was for decades one of the savviest and most pugnacious Republican political operatives in Washington, a veteran of the Nixon and Reagan campaigns.

[lentinelia]

I don't really care about "balance".

What I resent is the news media, from top to bottom, does not know how to report a story without spin.

A case in point:

Recently the New York Times reported that Nicolas Sarkozy was in Egypt traveling with his "girlfriend".
The Miami Herald referred to Sarkozy "and his model-turned-singer girlfriend, Carla Bruni".

The story is actually that Nicolas Sarkozy was in Egypt accompanied by Carla Bruni.

The "girlfriend" and "model-turned-singer" business is added with heated breath to trumpet that the media thinks there is some gold in spinning a tabloid story that ol' Nick is having a sex with her.

This is one relatively trivial example, but it is true from top to bottom of the nature of reporting today. They just can't report facts. They must spin and sell products.

We, the public, are the losers - big time.

[BWonka]

"...the objectivity of the CMPA, which bills itself as a nonpartisan media watchdog group, is questionable,..."

Questionable??? Bull - 'well-known, far right leaning' is a better description.

Too bad an UNbalanced group was used. But then, their listeners are pretty UNbalanced!

[peaceispatriotic]

This is ridiculous! I hope that even the neocons out there can see the flaws in this so-called "scientific study." Bias is also found in what is chosen (and NOT chosen) as content. If 10 negative things happened in Iraq and 5 positive things happened, and you only report on 5 of the 10 negative things and all 5 positive things, that doesn't mean your reporting is fair and balanced!

[Qbear]

We interupt this FOX Newscast for breaking NEWS

Roving gangs of lesbians have yet again stolen Christmas

[HarveyD]

N E W S B U L L E T I N

The non-partisan neo-fascist group in Berlin has just voted Adolph Hitler most benevolent and admired leader of the 20th century.

[dolphy]

BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

[Manx]

Well at least they have a sense of humor.

[PrincessAnnie]

Ugh...the mainstream media on the whole is a huge shitstain on our country, but Fox News is so bad that I've banned it in my house. It's absolutely unwatchable.

[DASM]

This has to be the most preposterous report I have seen this year, which is saying a lot. Fox is completely right wing, promotes Repubs, attacks Democrats every day, promotes men, runs near-porn stories repeatedly. They are, simply, a Repub propoganda network. The fact that it took a biased Con (Fox-linked?) group to write such a report just clinches it. Other than the Fox viewers, people everywhere will find this report ridiculous.

[jeersforfears]

Every poll taken - Reuters, USAToday, New York Times, etc. etc. etc. is conducted by a liberal backed organization - THE MAINSTREAM NEWS MEDIA!

That's been going on since the 1920's, when the fellow travellers from the Soviet Union started taking over US universities, schools of "journalism," and the news media.

There's more substantive proof that the current US MSM is blatantly Leftist and an America-hating entity than there is negative information about Fox News.

[Driver125]

Faux News is a not-so-funny joke. They might just as well say "Owned & Operated by the RNC" after every program. But that's OK. If they have the funds to own and operate their own propaganda outlet --- more power to them. I just wish that they would stop insisting that we acknowledge, against all the evidence of all of our senses, that this pile of lemons is really some cool, refreshing lemonade. You can put all of the lipstick there is on that pig and it will still remain a pig, and all of the talking in the world will never legitimatize that bastard, so they might as well just stop trying. Get on with your real job, which is keeping the wackos safely in the Big Sleep and leave the normal people alone.

[gonnuts]

What a joke. First off they're not reporting news, so that disqualifies them from the get-go. And I'd take that a step further by saying NONE of the so-called news networks report news of any caliber and that includes Olberman and PBS (exception being Moyers - but the percentage of people that ever watch any of his programs is so small as to negate any effect they might have).

This is the most uninformed and misinformed society on the planet. The ONLY place anyone can receive anything close to real news is the Internet which allows us to roam the worlds news sources and get bloggers eye witness accounts of what is going down. Other than that if you're listening to M$M for information be aware that you are being lied to.