Re: Bad Journalists*

A follow-up to Mariel's post on reporters who give to political causes: The MSNBC survey found that: "Most of the newsroom checkbooks leaned to the left: 125 journalists gave to Democrats and liberal causes. Only 17 gave to Republicans. Two gave to both parties."

Really? Journalists lean to the left? You don't say! The report adds:

The pattern of donations, with nearly nine out of 10 giving to Democratic candidates and causes, appears to confirm a leftward tilt in newsrooms — at least among the donors, who are a tiny fraction of the roughly 100,000 staffers in newsrooms across the nation.

On what may or may not be an unrelated note, a new Gallup poll finds that only 23 percent of Americans have confidence in TV news (down from 31 percent a year ago), and 22 percent have confidence in newspapers (down from 30 percent a year ago).

But we in the media need not despair! We still rate better than Congress, which comes in dead last of all the ranked institutions, rating below even HMOs. Congress got just 14 percent of the public's confidence -- down from 19 percent last year, suggesting that the Pelosi Revolution hasn't done much to change the public's mind about politicians.

All of which indicates that the relationship between politics and the media is as dysfunctional as Tony Blair says it is.

* UPDATE: I originally misquoted the stat on Congress, it's since been corrected.