Are Journalists Out of Touch?

In a blurb on the Wall Street Journal's Opinion Journal page they make mention of a recent study by the Pew Research group.

Link to the Opinion Journal Blurb "The People vs. the Press"

Link to Pew Research Center "Bottom-Line Pressures Now Hurting Coverage, Say Journalists: Press Going Too Easy on Bush"

The info at the Pew sight is a bit hard to read but one thing that just jumps our is how stunningly far out there people in the press are compared to the rest of America.

63% of journalists could not think of a "news organizations that are especially liberal". We can get into arguments on bias and causes but for almost two thirds of journalists to not think of even one liberal media source is amazing. How left do journalists as a group have to be for 63% to not think that the New York Times or NPR are liberal?

24% of the American public feels that the press is not critical enough of Bush. 55% of journalists feel they are too easy on Bush. I'm not saying they are or aren't just pointing out the massive disparity in numbers. That 24% of Americans that think Bush is getting off easy I would say more or less represents the die hard "Anybody But Bush" lobby. Does that mean more than half of journalists are in the ABB camp? Something to keep in mind as election day draws near.

I predict that the public will listen to the mainstream media less and less as they being to feel that the journalists are out of touch. Journalists will react to this by being extremist to trying and be heard vs. stepping back and reflecting on why people don't care what they say. We live with a press that grew up seeing a few like Walter Cronkite have God like powers to influence American opinion and they think it's their right to wield the same power. I doubt they will react kindly to being ignored.