Journalism was my major field of study during round one of my college carrer. I can assure you that there is no big consipiracy involved in the number of liberals in that field versus conservatives. The reason why most who are attracted to journalism are "liberal" is actually pretty simple.
I well remember my first real journalism class. On the first day, the professor asked if anyone in the room knew what a newspaper was in business for. Most of the answers were utterly predictable and totally wrong. Answers like: "To save the world from corporate greed," or "To get to the truth that the evil U.S. government doesn't want revealed," and so forth. After a dozen similar answers, the professor seemed visibly vexed. I raised my hand, and offered my take on the thing.
"A newspaper, like any other business in a capitalist society, exists to make a profit."
I was roundly heckled and booed by classmates. The professor let this go on for a time, kind of soaking in the scene, so to speak.
"Finally!," He exclaimed. "That is EXACTLY what a newspaper exists for."
Or, at least that is what they existed for in 1983. They aren't doing so hot now, apparently. I've got a big major daily owned by a big corporation that still owes me 3K for freelance work I did for them that they have never paid me for. They claim they can't afford to, but I digress.....
You see, the simple answer is that the very nature of the news business attracts idealist progressives who think of a million things that are wrong with the U.S.A. but can't think of anything good that came from it or can come from it. There is too much social and economic injustice. Too much violence. Too much corruption. Too much animal cruelty. Too much pollution of the environment. There is too much liberty and freedom given to people too stupid to know what to do with it. Corporations are evil. Politicians who are not progressive can't be trusted. Capitalism isn't fair. And so it goes......
Journalism attracts these types because they view the field, from the git-go, as thier own "bully pulpit" from which to propagandize. They dream of getting the big Watergate-style scoop. They believe that words can do what bullets can't. They hate America and all it has stood for. They want it to change. For them, the ends justify the means. Always. It is central to their thinking. They have a deluded view of self that is almost universally held, from what I observed, and they sincerely think that they are smarter than their peers in class, smarter than others in the program, smarter than those who choose to study other fields, and they definitely see themselves as being smarter than those who choose to go to technical school to be diesel mechanics instead of choosing to attend a liberal arts college. Their god is Darwinian Evolution, which they embrace because they don't understand the Third Law of Thermodynamics. They aren't as smart as they think they are, but they're progressives and if you aren't, you are stupid, by default.
And that is why they go for journalism. It gives them broadcast to their otherwise small voices and an opportunity to shape the course of dialogue and history. As moral realtivists, they have no problem propagandizing as much as they think they can get away with. Everyone lies. Everyone cheats. Smart people do it for personal gain in order to be in a position to do public good. It's all okay to them, because in their mind, the ends always justify the means if those "ends" are progressive in nature.
At least, that is what I recall the overwhelming majority of my classmates being like.
It isn't true to say that liberals "own" the media. I am not buying that for a second. Because they don't. Most media outlets are owned by those big, evil, corrupt, heartless, capitalist, self-serving corporations that journalists in the main claim to despise. In other words, they're owned by SHAREHOLDERS -people like you and me, or at least, people like me who like to play the legalized gambling game of stock trading. They're controlled by boards of directors. Some on the boards are liberal, to be sure. Others are not. Their job is to maximize value for shareholders. They aren't doing so hot right now in the newspaper end of the business.
How come there aren't more conservatives? Hey, I was there! I know why!
It boils down to a simple case of not wanting to spend your life surrounded by people you can't stand who also can't stand you. Nobody really wants to go where they aren't wanted, won't fit in, or where everything becomes an uphill battle. Few would willingly choose a work environment like that and its no different for the few conservatives who ARE attracted to journalism, at least initially.
Conservatives believe, typically, in things like hard work, personal accountability, responsibility for self, liberty, and so forth. To a conservative, the freedom to try doesn't come with a promise to succeed. We understand that failure falls on us and us alone. We tend to be a little more willing to fail. A little more entreprenurial, so to speak.
So we take our education and go freelance, usually for periodicals, where we can write about the things that do make this country great. Or we get in to public relations for those big corporations that we don't think are all that evil. Or we do PR for government agencies. Or we take what we learned in college about writing reports and conducting interviews and go in to law enforcement. We stay out of the newsroom because we're smart enough to figure out that the field itself isn't that much different -can't be that much different- than the people it attracts. In other words, we're smart enough to know that those actually employed in journalism aren't much different in terms of world view than those seeking to enter the field. Just as most of your peers in journalism school are progressive types, so will they be in the workforce in the news business, too. And because they are the majority, it'll be that way all up and down the organizational totem pole. So, as I wrote, instead of going where we aren't wanted, we take that same education and skill set and use it where we will be valued.
So there you have it. No big agenda. No evil consipircy. It's simply that some fields of endeavor attract certain types of people more than others. Journalism is no different. Thankfully, you can do more with a journalism degree than work for a news organization.
JP
