Are journalists biased to the left?

If this story by John Tierney, in the New York Times is any indication, the answer is a resounding yes! This won't come as a surprise to many people, especially my readers, but it may be shocking to Times readers, if they're paying attention. Tierney conducted an unscientific survey of journalists and found

...do journalists really want John Kerry to defeat George W. Bush? It depends where they work and how you ask the question, at least according to the unscientific survey we conducted last weekend during a press party at the convention. We got anonymous answers from 153 journalists, about a third of them based in Washington.

When asked who would be a better president, the journalists from outside the Beltway picked Mr. Kerry 3 to 1, and the ones from Washington favored him 12 to 1. Those results jibe with previous surveys over the past two decades showing that journalists tend to be Democrats, especially the ones based in Washington. Some surveys have found that more than 80 percent of the Beltway press corps votes Democratic.

Tierney then attempts to explain away this obvious bias by arguing that journalists say they would rather cover Bush than Kerry because, as he phrases the question, "Why stick with the Bush administration? 'You can't ask for a richer cast of characters to cover,' one Washington correspondent said. 'Kerry will be a bore after these guys.'"

Well, that settles it then. Obviously they're not biased. They'd rather cover Bush - except for the Washington press corps

Washington respondents said they would rather cover Mr. Kerry, but by a fairly small amount, 27 to 21, and the other journalists picked Bush, 56 to 40. (A few others had no opinion.) The overall result was 77 for Bush, 67 for Mr. Kerry.

See? They're not really biased at all!

The usual argument is, "We're professionals. We put aside our personal prejudices when doing our job."

And I have some swamp land in Louisiana that's primed for major development. Interested?

According to Tierney, the more balanced journalists "outside the beltway" are 75% Kerry, 25% Bush. Inside the beltway, they're 93% Kerry, 7% Bush. So, in a country supposedly evenly divided, we can expect the journalists to be.....decidedly to the left of the mainstream.

To understand how far to the left, you just need to read the last line of Tierney's story

"Bush's religious streak,'' one Florida correspondent said, "would drive me nuts on a desert island."

One wonders how Bush would feel if he were stranded on a desert island with "professional" journalists.

Hat tip to Instapundit.