Journalists Cowed

Journalists Cowed

This thing will probably show up on your Facebook at some point today, most likely under one of those two-sentence headlines that everyone sneered at last year and then started using exclusively in let’s say… January? Like this one from the Washington Post: “Just 7 percent of journalists are Republicans. That’s far fewer than even a decade ago.”

There are other headlines that would also be accurate. “Just 28 percent of journalists identify as Democrats. That’s fewer than even a decade ago.” Or: “Haha, so the whole libertarian journo-man thing is a 90s thing?” Or: “Finally, a majority of journalists have realized that identifying with a political party is more trouble than it’s worth.” Or: “Twenty years of screaming “BIAS” has had a measurable effect on how journalist take voluntary surveys.” Or: “The internet did this.” All of these would work! But none of these would work on Facebook. In any case this is possibly the least important graphic in what otherwise feels like an important document about fatigue and uncertainty.