By Barbara Cochran, RTNDA President Emeritus

President Obama’s unprecedented series of interviews on five Sunday morning talk shows is the most recent example of the uncomfortable mixture of politics and journalism that grows more common every day.

Of course, there’s nothing unusual about a newsmaker who holds elected office appearing on “Meet the Press,” “Face the Nation” or “This Week.” And the President is the newsmaker-in chief.

What made this unusual was the White House decision to go for a “roadblock,” an appearance on every network.
Every network except one, that is. Although no one at the White House would officially confirm the reason, Obama snubbed “Fox News Sunday with Chris Wallace.” A press aide suggested Fox might prefer to show “So You Think You Can Dance,” an unsubtle reference to the program Fox broadcast on September 9, when all other broadcast networks carried the President’s health care address to Congress.

A lot of pundits speculated that the White House was punishing Fox not only for failing to carry Obama’s primetime address, but also for what they see as the unfriendliness of Fox’s cable news network toward Democrats in general and Obama in particular.

The President himself remarked in several of his interviews on the politically charged nature of today’s television news, telling CBS’s Bob Schieffer, “The 24-hour news cycle and cable television and blogs and all this, they focus on the most extreme elements on both sides. They can't get enough of conflict; it's catnip to the media right now.”

Obama didn’t limit his comments to Fox. To CNN’s John King he said, “The easiest way to get on CNN is, or Fox or any of the other stations, MSNBC, is to just say something rude and outrageous.”

The chiefs of the cable networks say that their journalists cover the news even-handedly and their opinionated prime-time hosts are just being honest about purveying their points of view.

It’s the mix that may be confusing to viewers. The Pew Research Center for the People and the Press reported last week that two-thirds of the public (67 percent) say the press tends to favor one side of the political spectrum, an increase from 54 percent two years ago. The growth in perceptions of media bias comes almost entirely among Democrats.

“Republicans continue to be highly critical of the news media in nearly all respects,” writes survey director Andrew Kohut. “On several measures, Democratic criticism of the news media over the past two years has grown by double-digits since 2007.”

This year’s findings are part of a long-term trend tracked by Pew since 1985, when less than half of the public saw political bias in the media and there was little difference between the views of Republicans and Democrats. Republican dissatisfaction grew during the 1990s, according to Pew, with more Democrats and independents seeing bias since 2002.
 
 The perception of bias goes hand in hand with another trend in the survey. Doubts about accuracy have climbed dramatically. Only 29 percent think news organizations generally get the facts straight, and 63 percent say news stories are often inaccurate. From the focus groups RTNDF does with viewers as part of its ethics workshops, we know that many equate inaccuracy with bias. They think if a news organization spells someone’s name wrong in a super, it’s because the organization is biased against that person.

These views on bias and accuracy get even more interesting when applied to different news organizations. Republicans view Fox News more favorably, Democrats view MSNBC more favorably. Independents are equally favorable (55 percent) toward both Fox and CNN.

The broadcast networks are viewed more favorably than the cable networks. And local television news is viewed most favorably of all.

That’s right. Whatever the public may think about bias in national media, they still are highly favorable toward local television. Three out of four Americans have a favorable opinion of local TV, only an 11 percent decline since the survey began in 1985. That’s compared to a 16 percent drop for local newspapers and a 20 percent drop for network news. (The survey measured views of radio news, but not local radio news specifically.)

When asked which news outlet would be a big loss if it went out of business, 82 percent chose local television news, the most of any type of media.

The survey showed another vote of confidence in local TV news. A total of 44 percent said local television does the most to uncover local stories, compared to 25 percent for local newspapers and 11 percent for news Web sites.  

 With the media landscape in turmoil, local television is in an enviable position. It is rated less biased, more accurate and more valuable than other media.

That suggests a couple of lessons for local newsrooms. Your strength is even-handed reporting, accuracy and accountability to the public. If there were ever any doubt, it’s local, local, local. Your community trusts you and counts on you to provide news they can’t or don’t get from other sources.

Local television news has an advantage in today’s partisan warfare. The survey suggests you should proceed with caution before injecting opinion into your product.

That may not be a factor in the on-air broadcast, but it could become one in on-line writing. You should have a clear understanding among staff of the rules of the road for blogging and social media – what opinions can be expressed and what is not appropriate. And there also should be clarity on what kinds of activities your news staff can participate in and what is off-limits. With today’s digital media, even a Tweet from a personal account can boomerang if it seems to show a political leaning.

The RTNDA Code of Ethics advises, “Professional electronic journalists should not engage in activities that may compromise their integrity or independence.” That applies on-line as much as it does on-air.