Is it just me?

[RageD]

Is it just me, or does it seem democratic parties and not only the people you are around, but your profession somewhat have an affect on what political party you are.. I know, to me, it seems for example, most teachers are part of the democratic party... So, is it just me, or is it like this?

-RageD

[FucangLong]

Most teachers dont disclose their political status, because they don't want angry phone calls from parents who say their child's teacher told them that one party is better than another.

[demo_news]

Yeah i agree with FucangLong, teachers, staff, etc., don't disclose thir political status. 1 thing is, they could be fired.

[Abraham]

i agree that teachers like many other working class people traditionally vote democrats. it has to do more with what they derive out of it....plus their liberal thoughts of course...

[Newscaster]

I dont think profession determines political leanings. I know as many Democratic Corporate CEOs as Republican. Most political party membership is the result of how your parents voted. If they voted Republican, then the chances are so will you and vice versa. Lsater on you might do some research that could cause you to change party affiliation or something else might cause the change.
Look at my own profession.....journalism.
They call it the liberal press but if you read as much as I do, you will find a predominance of republican conservative reporters and columnists. Liberals or Democrats have become a minority. Even newspaper political slants have changed. The New York Times is not as liberal as it once was nor is the Washington Post. The New York Post which was once one of the most liberal papers in the country is now just this side of being a tabloid scandal sheet.
I have seen teacher demonstrations in the streets with teachers holding signs boosting both sides of whatever dispute had them in an uproar.
I think people pick their sides based on information at hand rather than party affiliation. And thats a good thing.

[Labrocca]

I don't agree Newscaster. I started voting republican when I owned a business and realized how that party was more in favor of my profession. I knew that the GOP would keep my taxes down.

[PittsburghAfterDark]

They call it the liberal press but if you read as much as I do, you will find a predominance of republican conservative reporters and columnists. Liberals or Democrats have become a minority. Even newspaper political slants have changed. The New York Times is not as liberal as it once was nor is the Washington Post.

And people say I'm out of touch :rolleyes:.

You're living on another planet if you think that liberals and Democrats are minority of reporters.

Did you or did you not read "Bias". Bernard Goldberg has it 100% correct.

Liberal and Democratic views are so predominant in network newscasts it's laughable to say Republicans and Conservatives are dominant in the ranks.

If an alien landed here from another planet he/she/it would assume that Harry Reid led the Senate, Nancy Peolosi was in charge of the House and John Murtha was the up and coming political leader destined to lead this country.

You don't think the WaPo and NYT are as liberal as they once were?

Hell, they make up news and give themselves awards for it. Where are all these mystery prisons scattered through Europe for terrorist suspects that the U.S. maintains? Every single country where these are supposed to exist have denied them.

That doesn't matter, the writer for the WaPo that wrote it won a Pulitzer... for fiction? No, for reporting. Yet no one has been able to prove the validity of her work.

The MSM is an absolute joke and as partisan as they come.

[Alonzo]

Culture plays a big role. There's not way to explain away, simply based on an uninfluenced opinion, the vast differences between blue states and red states. Religion, education, ethnic background, social background etc. all effect it. I guess jobs play some role (I mean, which side is going to give teachers more), but I think it's more of a case of certain ways of thinking leading simultaneously to certain jobs and certain belief systems.

Though, PAD, media bias is blown way out of proportion. The news if left of you and right of me. The left complains about it, the right complains about it. As far as I'm concerned it's close to the middle of the road, with small deviations either way depending on the organization.

[Newscaster]

Pittsburgh, I know Bernard Goldberg. I know his book, his career and his cologne. When he wrote that book, he had an axe to grind. Simply speaking, his career was not going as well as he wanted it.

Pittsburgh, you may have sold air time at some local stations but that doesnt make you a maven about Journalism. Unless you have been in the middle of it, done it and survived it, you are not an expert. You are simply a partisan. And unfortunately, partisans often become lemmings.

[PittsburghAfterDark]

And you failed to address one single point I made. Instead you hide behind the shield of "unless you've been in the middle of it". Listen newscaster, who do you think had to sit in front of advertisers and hear all about crappy reporting on Dateline NBC, 60 Minutes II or 20/20? Who do you think it was that had to hear about what an a-hole Peter Jennings and Dan Rather were?

Listen, it's the local stations that make a network. It's the people that watch those stations that make up your audience. Dismissing me out of hand because I only worked at the affiliate level makes you even more eliteist. Two of the groups I worked for were O&O's in top 20 media markets.

What's that make me in the realm of message board media critics? Practically an insider.

So Bernard Goldberg had an axe to grind. No shit. Really? Never would have guessed.

Does that negate any of his book? Nope.

I have never heard an ex-producer, assignment director or editor from CBS question the facts in "Bias". Sure, they'll say it's "sad" that he chose to vent this way. However it didn't start with his book. It started when he wrote his op-ed piece for the WSJ.

I'll tell you this, there is no "survival" in American journalism. It's a group of reporters writing to and for a group of reporters. Keep toeing the line each other want to hear you do fine.

Unless you're doing the type of work that got Daniel Pearl murdered you're not surviving anything. You're just showing up to work like any other working class schlub.

[Newscaster]

No, Mr Goldberg's axe to grind is simply that, an axe to grind. Nothing more. But the attitudes of one man does not make a concensus and just because he said it, does not make it true or accurate.

My friend, you protest too much which makes me think there is an agenda behind your comments. I also sense that your comments are actually just parroting of things you have heard on such radio talk shows as Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity and Bill O'Reilly, three of many conservative commentators who have been proven wrong time after time.

I would suggest you visit the website called Media Matters for America and with an open mind, if thats possible, read what they have to say about the performance of the media and the administration and they sock it to democrats as well as republicans. But I dont suspect you will because you are so comfortable where you are, there is no room for anything else.

Oh and by the way, I covered the war in Vietnam (and not in Saigon but in the tall grass and the rice paddies), Grenada, Panama and Desert Storm. Like I said before, dont criticize someone you know nothing about.

Have a nice day.

[PittsburghAfterDark]

Yeah, been to Media Matters, slants a little left for my tastes. I also have spent time with AIM, FAIR, Media Research Center and the Columbia Journalism Review.

We can agree to disagree on this issue.

You have to understand, I'm not criticizing you, I'm criticizing your colleagues past/present as a whole.Â*Â*Being a combat correspondent is understandably tough business.Â*Â*We didn't have any in my unit during Desert Storm.

One thing you can't disagree with me on is this.

If you fancy yourself a traditional cut and dry reporter in the Murrow mold you cannot seriously think that standard of journalism exists anymore.Â*Â*It's not that there are or aren't people capable of doing that work; it just isn't done much.

Investigative journalism costs a fortune to do with little if any increased airtime for the expense.Â*Â*Networks, newspapers and magazines seldom do in depth analysis of issues anymore.Â*Â*Too much is quoted, leaked and press released.Â*Â*Not researched.

I'll offer this little tidbit of how truly inept I think financial reporting and political reporting is in this country.Â*Â*How many people in this country can explain base line budgeting?Â*Â*How many people understand the difference between real cuts in government spending and decreases in the rate of growth?Â*Â*Last, how is it that tax cuts "for the wealthy" are dangerous when the top 50% of tax payers account for 96% of the income tax receipts?

The reporters covering these issues can't explain them yet parrot Democratic responses and boiler plate speeches on the issue.

Now, how isn't that bias?Â*Â*Or is it just ineptitude.

EDIT: I'm also curious, do you know anything about the Iraqi Baby Milk Factory or Operation Tailwind?

[EXDIA53]

Back to the original subject, I spent a number of years in the intelligence community, both as employee and consultant, and have observed that the majority of analysts seem to be Democrats.Â*Â*This is not always easy to tell, since party politics is not a subject of discussion if you are professional, but I think it's because if you are a "natural" Republican, you gravitate toward an occupation, trade, etc., in some form of commerce.Â*Â*You get your MBA or become a building contractor, etc.Â*Â*If you are a "natural" liberal, you are more likely to go into liberal arts and wind up with a graduate degree in something like International Relations.Â*Â*Of course few are purely one or the other, and ignorant stereotypes confuse the issue.Â*Â*I came from a conservative, military family, got "liberal arts" degrees, then went into the military and civilian intelligence fields.Â*Â*I am quite liberal and very patriotic.Â*Â*I've known social workers and teachers (in my own family) who were GOP voters and one very successful business owner who was a hard-core, tax-and-spend Democrat.Â*Â*So there are exceptions, and life's lessons may change a natural tendency.
As for the media, I would have agreed fifteen years ago that it was slightly left of center, but today?Â*Â*Give me a break.Â*Â*If you think NBC or CNN are left, you have to be right of Atilla the Hun.