Lies, Damn Lies, and Statistics

The blogosphere is abuzz about the latest Pew Research Center Survey on political attitudes of American journalists.

The survey finds that national journalists self-identify as follows: "liberal" 34%, "conservative" 7%, rest "moderate". This compared to the general public (again self-identification): "liberal" 19%, "conservative" 33%, rest "moderate".

At first it would seem that the media "new class" is somewhat to the "left" of the general public. However, comparing self-identification of two so disparate groups is about as meaningful as comparing, say, lengths of people expressed in Saxon and Dutch ells without using a conversion factor.

More informative are three questions that Pew asked both journalists and the general public.

"Is belief in G-d necessary to be a moral person?" [For the record, I do not believe this to be the case.] General public: Yes 58%, No 40%, Don't Know 2%. National Journalists: Yes 6%, No 91%, Don't Know 3%.

"Should homosexuality be accepted by society?" General public: Accept 51%, Discourage 42%, Don't Know 7%. National Journalists: Accepted 88 %, Discouraged 5%, Don't Know 7%.

"Which is more important: individual [economic] freedom or a social safety net?" General public: Freedom 58%, Safety Net 34%, Don't Know 8%. National Journalists: Freedom 49 %, Safety Net 42 %, Don't Know 9 %.

The gap on economic issues is fairly small, but that on moral-social issues looks more like an abyss. In fact, where it comes to homosexuality, the subgroup of journalists that is closest to the general public ("Accept" 49%) is the small group that self-identifies as conservative! By contrast, no less than 72% of self-identified "conservative" journalists disagrees that one has to believe in G-d to be moral.

A more detailed study of attitudes among journalists vs. the general public, on a more diverse list of issues than these few "probe" questions, would have been a lot more informative than the "self-identification" comparison. In fact, a reader could be forgiven for interpreting the Pew Center results as saying that 7 % of national journalists are moderate, 59 % liberal, and 34 % card-carrying L3s. Or, taking this extreme interpretation as the "left" limit and the "self-identify" as the "right" limit, that among national journalists conservatives number 3.5+/-3.5 %, moderates 33+/-26%, liberals 47+/-12%, and left-wing wackos 17+/-17%.