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Thursday, August 11, 2011

Online Micro News Sites Showing Bias

Note: This is a summary of a story from the latest episode of The NonProfit Times TV

Micro news sites formed as nonprofits have been popping up all across the country, but they aren't exactly passing the sniff test when it comes to objective journalism.

According to a recently released study by the Pew Research Center's Project For Excellence in Journalism, more than half of these sites have an ideological bias in their reporting.  The study also found that the more ideological sites tended to be funded mostly or entirely by one organization.  Sites with a more balanced political perspective had multiple funders. 

The most liberal sites were nine, operating under the umbrella of the American Independent News Network.  This group is funded by a variety of organizations, including the Open Society Foundation.  The most conservative sites were 12.  They all shared the common name Watchdog (i.e. "Alaska Watchdog"), and were funded by the Franklin Center for Government and Public Integrity. 

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