Empirical evidence showing liberal bias in Canadian newsrooms is somewhere between ancient news and stating the obvious. Of course, Canadian newsrooms are inherently liberal, just watch one minute of the CBC or look at the content being taught at most journalism schools. It is as obvious as the day is long that the cultural left has a vice grip on these institutions.
Ryerson University professors Marsha Barber and Ann Rauhala explored the demographic and political leanings of Canada’s television news directors. The results of their survey were published in 2005 in the Canadian Journal of Communication. The researchers found the news directors, the people “with the most direct responsibility for programming the news on any given day,” were more politically and socially liberal than the rest of the Canadian population.
Broken down by network, those working for the CBC were the most left-leaning.
Barber and Rauhala’s findings echo researchers David Pritchard and Florian Sauvageau’s survey results from years earlier. Regarding Canadian TV journalists, they found most felt the news organizations they worked for were “slightly left of centre” when it came to political outlook while they themselves were ideologically more left-leaning than their employers.
