NewsBusters: Network news liberally applies ‘conservative’ label to presidential candidates

NewsBusters
The conservative Media Research Center has compared network news coverage of presidential candidates this year to the same period four years ago and concluded that journalists described candidates as “conservative” in 2011 much more often than they labeled candidates “liberal” in 2007. The study found 62 uses of the “conservative” label on morning and evening news programs for the first six months of 2011, compared to just three uses of “liberal” four years ago. “It’s neither inaccurate nor impolite to describe this year’s GOP candidates as ‘conservative’ — most of them wear the label proudly,” writes Rich Noyes. “But if the networks are going to treat both sides fairly, they should have been just as ardent in pointing out the liberalism of the Democratic field that produced the most liberal President in American history.” (Is President Barack Obama really the most liberal president we’ve had? I’ll let the commenters duke it out.) || Related: What it pays to monitor the media