Freeper XM does media bias survey of New York Times news articles...

LEXIS-NEXIS, my own pointy head | Today | xm177e2

[xm177e2]

New York Times National Desk Media Bias Survey, 1991-2000:

Note this search was done on LEXIS-NEXIS. ONLY news articles from the New York Times National Desk were searched—letters to the editor do not appear, nor do editorials or columns (unless they contain the term “national desk,” I have no idea how often this would occur, I assume it’s very rare). This is because LEXIS-NEXIS has no way of searching just within news articles, but every article from the National Desk contains the term “National Desk” in the LEXIS-NEXIS summary.

“Occurrences” is the number of articles in which the term appears. “Both” is the number of articles in which both terms appear. “Mut. Excl.” is the number of articles in which ONLY one of the two terms appears. Relative frequency is the number to watch, if the “Relative Frequency” of “right-wing” to “left-wing” is 5, that means the term “right-wing” is FIVE times as likely to appear in a news story! A relative frequency of "1" would occur if the words are used an equal number of times. A value over 1 might suggest liberal bias, while values under 1 suggest conservative bias.

#Div/0 denotes an Excel error because one cannot divide by zero, so certain relative frequencies are incalculable.

“w/5” means “within five words of,” so “Right-Wing! w/5 Radical!” would pick up phrases like “right-wing radical terrorists from the…” or “but certain radicals on the right-wing demand an end to…”

When a word ends in !, that means the LEXIS-NEXIS search will look for all words beginning with whatever is before the exclamation point. “Extrem!” thus could be “extreme,” “extremely,” “extremist,” “extremities,” etc.

These are the results, they have not been peer reviewed, it’s just a little research done by a college student on a lark, but I assume it’s all correct.

Terms/Phrases:	Occurrences	Both	Mut. Excl.
Number of uses of the word referring to
x
Right-Wing!	828	32	796
Left-Wing!	164		132
Relative Frequency:	5.04878		6.030303
x
Right-Wing	806	31	775
Left-Wing	156		125
Relative Frequency:	5.166667		6.2
x
Hard Right-Wing!	1	0	1
Hard Left-Wing!	0		0
Relative Frequency:	#DIV/0!		#DIV/0!
x
Right-Wing Extrem!	48	0	48
Left-Wing Extrem!	0		0
Relative Frequency:	#DIV/0!		#DIV/0!
x
Extreme Right!	62	1	61
Extreme Left!	6		5
Relative Frequency:	10.33333		12.2
x
Right-Wing Radical!	7	0	7
Left-Wing Radical!	4		4
Relative Frequency:	1.75		1.75
x
Radical Right!	48	1	47
Radical Left!	17		16
Relative Frequency:	2.823529		2.9375
x
Right-Wing Reactionar!	1	0	1
Left-Wing Reactionar!	0		0
Relative Frequency:	#DIV/0!		#DIV/0!
x
Reactionary Right!	0	0	0
Reactionary Left!	0		0
Relative Frequency:	#DIV/0!		#DIV/0!
x
Right-Winger!	29	0	29
Left-Winger!	8		8
Relative Frequency:	3.625		3.625
x
Right-Wing Conservative!	11	0	11
Left-Wing Liberal!	4		4
Relative Frequency:	2.75		2.75
x
Right-Wing! w/5 Extrem!	89	0	89
Left-Wing! w/5 Extrem!	0		0
Relative Frequency:	#DIV/0!		#DIV/0!
x
Right-Wing! w/5 Radical!	21	0	21
Left-Wing! w/5 Radical!	6		6
Relative Frequency:	3.5		3.5
x
Right-Wing! w/5 Reaction	2	0	2
Left-Wing! w/5 Reactiona	0		0
Relative Frequency:	#DIV/0!		#DIV/0!
x
Right-Wing! w/5 Mean-Spi	1	0	1
Left-Wing! w/5 Mean-Spir	0		0
Relative Frequency:	#DIV/0!		#DIV/0!
x
Right-Wing! w/5 Angry	3	0	3
Left-Wing! w/5 Angry	1		1
Relative Frequency:	3		3
x
Right-Wing! w/5 Racis!	2	0	2
Left-Wing! w/5 Racis!	0		0
Relative Frequency:	#DIV/0!		#DIV/0!
x
Right-Wing! w/5 Violen!	9	0	9
Left-Wing! w/5 Violen!	0		0
Relative Frequency:	#DIV/0!		#DIV/0!
x
Conserva! w/5 Extrem!	71	4	67
Liberal! w/5 Extrem!	29		25
Relative Frequency:	2.448276		2.68
x
Conserva! w/5 Radical!	25	2	23
Liberal! w/5 Radical!	26		24
Relative Frequency:	0.961538		0.958333
x
Conserva! w/5 Reactionar	6	0	6
Liberal! w/5 Reactionar!	1		1
Relative Frequency:	6		6
x
Conserva! w/5 Mean-Spir!	2	0	2
Liberal! w/5 Mean-Spir!	2		2
Relative Frequency:	1		1
x
Conserva! w/5 Angry	34	2	32
Liberal! w/5 Angry	9		7
Relative Frequency:	3.777778		4.571429
x
Conserva! w/5 Racis!	6	0	6
Liberal! w/5 Racis!	8	8
Relative Frequency:	0.75		0.75
x
Liberal-Leaning!	44	1	43
Conservative-Leaning!	28		27
Relative Frequency:	1.571429		1.592593

[xm177e2]

And yet ANOTHER problem with his research is that he might be looking at ALL items in the newspaper, not just hard news articles.

Letters to the editor, columnists, and editorials are free to use terms like "mean-spirited racist Republicans" and "bleeding-heart liberal commie dogs"--we expect the NEWS articles to be unbiased, not the whole newspaper!

[LarryLied]

Good work! Thanks. Wonder how many times "activist" shows up. That is the usual New York Times term for left wing terrorist bombers such as Lori Berenson.

[xm177e2]

And for your enjoyment, here are three really, really biased sentences from the NEWS pages of the NYT:

"Conservative on economic issues and liberal-leaning on social issues like health care and abortion, young voters want lower taxes and less interference from the Federal Government at state levels, but they also talk about the need for a higher minimum wage and for Federal spending on education, and they are concerned about protecting the environment and finding better jobs. According to New York Times/CBS News polls, 33 percent consider themselves independent, 30 percent say they are Republican, and 28 percent Democratic."
March 30, 1996, Saturday, Section 1; Page 8; Column 1; National Desk

"But it is difficult to classify the state's political philosophy. And between liberal-leaning Portland and conservative swaths in much of the rest of the state, Oregon has sent an eclectic mix of politicians to Washington and to the state Capitol in recent years."
October 29, 1999, Section A; Page 1; Column 1; National Desk

"The trend has cut across ideological and theological lines, affecting the conservative Southern Baptist Convention and the liberal- leaning United Church of Christ."
September 25, 1994, Section 1; Page 22; Column 4; National Desk

[SteveH]

So do people ever lean conservatively (acc. to the NYT) and get tagged in hyphenated fashion for it?

[ForGod'sSake]

Bookmarked. Great piece of work!

FGS