WASHINGTON -- Publisher Rupert Murdoch says there is a 'liberal media elite' in America that risks losing the nation's First Amendment guarantees but also what is often defined as liberal is merely part of being a good journalist.
'The press should be anti-establishment, should keep its distance from authority ... from big business and all vested interests,' said Murdoch. 'It's only natural that it should be questioning and skeptical. That leads to being understood very often as having a liberal position when (it really represents) nothing more than a skill.'
Benjamin Bradlee, executive editor of The Washington Post, also participated in the panel convened by the American Enterprise Institute to debate a recent controversial survey that found journalists are more liberal than most Americans.
The symposium, 'Is There A Liberal Media Elite in America?' drew scores of journalists and publishers, including Katharine Graham of the Post.
Bradlee challenged the survey by George Washington University professor S. Robert Lichter, saying it was based on dubious research. He ticked off eclectic biographies of the top decision-makers at the Post, saying no broad generalizations could be made about the personal beliefs.
He pointed out that the Lichter study never found that political leanings affected the way a journalist reports the news.
Michael Massing of Columbia Journalism Review, another panelist, called the study 'fallacious,' saying the numbers could be used to prove almost anything.
But Murdoch -- whose global media holdings include The Times of London, the New York Post, the Chicago Sun-Times and the Village Voice - acknowledged that liberalism has caused some problems.
He laid part of the blame for journalists who are 'out of reality' due to the proliferation of journalism schools, which he said 'tend to engender a very liberal spirit.'
The development is dangerous, he said, because more and more of the nation's small newspapers depend on stories from single nationalsources that too often have 'one pervasive view,' such as the wire services and syndicates run by the large newspapers.
'The First Amendment was not written for a monopoly press,' he said. 'We will be in danger some day if it doesn't straighten out its double standards and doesn't at least accommodate the more traditional values that have been recognized in this country.'
