Noonan claimed "everyone knows" PBS has liberal bias; polls show otherwise

In a June 16 OpinionJournal.com online column, Wall Street Journal contributing editor Peggy Noonan wrote that "arguing over whether PBS [the Public Broadcasting Service] is and has long been politically liberal is like arguing over whether the ocean is and has long been wet. Of course it is, and everyone knows it." In fact, as Media Matters for America has previously noted, a survey commissioned by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) in 2003 found that a plurality of Americans find no political bias in PBS or National Public Radio (NPR).

According to CPB, the survey found that "approximately one-in-five detect a liberal bias and approximately one-in-ten detect a conservative bias." Media Matters for America runs the Hands Off Public Broadcasting campaign, an effort to ensure that public broadcasting remains independent and free from political pressure and to highlight conservative misinformation in and about public broadcasting.

—S.S.M.