Maeshima Kazuhiro

This paper discusses the issue of political leanings in American media organizations. Specifically, there are four components of this work. First, I examine the definition of "liberal" in political traditions in the United States. Second, the discussion of "liberal bias" in U.S. media is examined. Serious arguments that the media in the U.S. lean toward the political left have initiated since the publication of The Media Elite (Lichter,Rothman, and Lichter 1986). This book suggests that American journalists have prominently progressive views on social issues and are more likely than averages U.S. citizens to vote for candidates from the Democratic Party. According to the book, those journalists are elites in society, graduates of the Ivy League or equally learned universities. Since its publication, the "liberal bias" of the media has arguably become a conventional wisdom in theories of political communications. Thirdly, however, a strong conservative backlash was launched by hawkish new media outlets in the mid-1990s, namely talk radio shows and cable news networks. Finally, the liberal camp has also begun unequivocally advocating left-of-center policies ideas and attacking their conservative counterparts. While studies claim that the public seeks the middle ground on political and social issues, the battle between the left and right of the American media spectrum has been increasingly articulated.

This study investigates congressional voting on the Shays-Meehan bill (the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act of 2002). The legislation bans soft money, the unregulated special interest donations to national political parties. But it doubles the limits of hard money, with donations to individual candidates now capped at $1, 000 per election. This study specifically explores the legislation by analyzing the congruence between members' rollcall voting and (1) their electoral margins against their opponents in the last elections; (2) their tenure; (3) the amount of individual contributions; (4) the amount of PAC (Political Action Committee) contributions; (5) the African American population in their constituencies; and (6) contributions from the now-defunct Enron corporation. Representatives' tenure establishes the strongest influence on their voting. While senior Democratic members are likely to cast 'nay' votes, senior Republicans tend to support the bill. The results also indicate that electoral margins against their opponents demonstrate a negative congruence with the vote.