FAIR Alert: C-SPAN Slanting Right

http://www.fair.org/index.php?page=2780

Action Alert

C-SPAN Slanting Right
Washington Journal's guestlist lacks balance

12/19/05

In the December issue of Extra!, FAIR published a study of the guestlist on C-SPAN's Washington Journal. Though C-SPAN's "flagship viewer call-in program" prides itself on its reputation for fairness, FAIR's study found that reputation does not reflect reality. But C-SPAN's response thus far has been silence.

Extra! studied Washington Journal's guestlist, tabulating all 663 guests who appeared on the show in the six-month period from November 1, 2004 to April 30, 2005. Guests were classified by gender, ethnicity, party affiliation (if any) and occupation. The study also looked at the think tanks most prominently represented on the show.

Among the most striking findings:


Of the partisan guests, Republicans outnumbered Democrats nearly two to one (134 to 70). Not a single representative of a third party appeared during the study period.

People of color made up only 15 percent of Washington Journal's guestlist (100 out of 663). People of African and Asian heritage accounted for 4 percent each, while those of Middle Eastern and Latin American descent represented 3 percent each. No Native Americans were identifiable during the six months studied.

Male guests outnumbered women by four to one, at 80 percent to 20 percent. Moreover, 69 percent of guests were white males, while just 3 percent were women of color.

Journalists accounted for nearly a third of all guests (32 percent), the largest single occupational group on the guestlist. Of opinion journalists, 32 were right-of-center while only 19 were left-of-center.

Citizen-based organizations and public interest groups accounted for just 9 percent of total guests.

"Balance is our No. 1 goal," Peter Slen, Washington Journal's executive producer and part-time host, once said, adding: "We keep official stats on the Washington Journal, OK? Republicans, Democrats, conservative, liberal, moderates—we try to stay within the week nearly perfect as far as the balance goes."

But since publication of the study, C-SPAN has declined to comment on the results, saying only that they would "keep it under advisement." They also turned down a FAIR offer to appear on Washington Journal to discuss the issue.

ACTION:
Please contact C-SPAN and let them know your thoughts about the study.

CONTACT:
C-SPAN
Washington Journal
Phone: 202-737-3220
journal@c-span.org

If you're concerned about the imbalance on Washington Journal, you can also call the viewer hotline this week to voice your concerns over the air:
(202) 628-0205

The show usually airs weekdays from 7-10 AM and weekends 8-10 AM EST.

Feel free to respond to FAIR ( fair@fair.org ). We can't reply to everything, but we will look at each message. We especially appreciate documented examples of media bias or censorship. And please send copies of your correspondence with media outlets, including any responses, to fair@fair.org.

Thanks for posting.

and have never gotten through. These days unless it's live covering the Senate or Congress...I do not listen...it is insane. Here's my email to them...
Good evening...I thought I would send you folks at C-Span a friendly note about why I can no longer watch your programming. It's ironic that watching your programs, way back when, was my only view into national politics. The content, and quality of the dialogue on your programs has deteriorated to the point, that it borders on abusive. For any type of intelligent discussion I am required to turn off the television, and turn on the computer. It is a shame what has happened, and I just thought I'd let you know how sorry I am that you are no longer a source for information, but just another tool for propaganda. So sad.

One of the hosts (I don't know their names) on Washington Journal is just blatantly pro-Repug.

appears to be Republican.

surprise. I rarely watch Wash. JournaL anymore because it has tilted so much to the right. They have a lot of guests from conservative organizations. Also they will have a right winger on with a moderate democrat. Rarely do they pair a right winger with a liberal. Also, many times they will take several Bush supporters in a row before taking a call from a democrat. Brian Lamb used to be quite fair but for the last few years has definitely shown a bias against democrats. Washington Journal has definitely changed, and not for the good.

"Why, it's an OUTRAGE! C-Span is still infected with that all-pervasive Liberal Bias! Despite all our calls, letters and threats to their management, they seem to INSIST on still having those DEMOCRAT Partisans on their show! That penchant for Liberals runs deep too; they've actually had people of color as well as those misguided women who just won't stay home with the kids where they belong! They're just encouraging this behavior and promoting the continued country's decline in proper, traditional, moral behavior... and we won't stand for it! It's about time we finally stood up for our rights, it's OUR broadcast medium anyway isn't it? The way these people keep cheating and using their Liberal Media advantage to co-opt precious broadcasting air time is just criminal and ought to be punished; we should toss them all in prison (and throw away the key). America :patriot: is a Conservative, Christian Republican nation, blessed by God O8), which is why we are the greatest country on Earth. They can try to trample on our rights, abuse and discriminate against us, resort to character attacks and dishonest smear tactics all they want, but in the end we will win through to Victory! Haven't they gotten the message yet? We won't be happy :cry: and we'll never quit (our demanding letters, petitions, demonstrations, threats, violence and hate mail campaigns--obviously we must fight fire with fire) until every single guest is an attractive, articulate, up-standing, God fearing REPUBLICAN (just the way it's supposed to be)!".
:sarcasm:

Nevertheless, there's more than a little truth in there. Certainly they won't be satisfied until (and perhaps not even then) the ratio is 100% Republican guests versus 0% Democrat/Liberal/Other. Actually, given their typical grasp of math (especially statistics) and science, that's their definition of "fair and balanced"/equal representation. They want all the cake, to eat it too and still lay claim to being fair. :banghead: Go figure.