In March and April 2005, the University of Connecticut's Department of Public Policy surveyed 300 journalists nationwide — 120 who worked in the television industry and 180 who worked at newspapers — and asked for whom they voted in the 2004 presidential election. In a report released May 16, 2005, the researchers disclosed that the journalists they surveyed selected Democratic challenger John Kerry over incumbent Republican President George W. Bush by a wide margin, 52 percent to 19 percent (with one percent choosing far-left independent candidate Ralph Nader). One out of five journalists (21 percent) refused to disclose their vote, while another six percent either didn't vote or said they did not know for whom they voted.
KEY FINDINGS:
More than half of the journalists surveyed (52 percent) said they voted for Democrat John Kerry in the 2004 presidential election, while fewer than one-fifth (19 percent) said they voted for Republican George W. Bush. The public chose Bush, 51 to 48 percent.
When asked 'generally speaking, do you consider yourself a Democrat, Republican, an Independent, or something else?' more than three times as many journalists (33 percent) said they were Democrats than said they were Republicans (10 percent).
While about half of the journalists said they were 'moderate,' 28 percent said they thought of themselves as liberals, compared to just 10 percent who said they were conservative.
One out of eight journalists (13 percent) said they considered themselves 'strongly liberal,' compared to just three percent who reported being 'strongly conservative.'
When asked about the Bill of Rights, nearly all journalists deemed 'essential' the right of a fair trial (97%), a free press (96%), freedom of religion (95%) and free speech (92%), and 80 percent called 'essential' the judicially-derived 'right to privacy.' But only 25 percent of the journalists termed the 'right to own firearms' essential, while 42 percent called that right 'important but not essential,' and 31 percent of journalists rejected the Second Amendment as 'not important.'
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