Myth Of Liberal Internet Shattered: 9/15 Top Media Sites Conservative

Another myth seeded, fueled, and fanned by the right wing has been shown to be false.  A study examined a number of statistics for the leading internet media websites that focus on politics, including monthly site hits, Quantcast rating, and Alexa global traffic rank.  The results conclusively prove that the top political media sites on the internet are dominated by a conservative bias.

Some of the results by eBiz (shown below) are rather surprising.  Far right wing Newsmax and The Free Republic make the list, as do the extremist sites Townhall and Hotair.  The myth of the “liberal internet media” is likely being perpetuation for the same reason it is for broadcast media: to try to dictate the narrative.

“I admit it — the liberal media were never that powerful, and the whole thing was often used as an excuse by conservatives for conservative failures.” -William Kristol, New Yorker, 5/22/95

The results are similar to a 1998 comprehensive report by Fairness and Accuracy In Reporting that shattered the myth of the supposedly “liberal” main stream media.  They also point out that NPR even cites four times as many conservative think tanks as liberal ones in their reporting.  It is also well established that conservative to far-right spokesman dominate both talk radio and the opinion pages of the nation’s newspapers.

Although the myth of the liberal mass media has been used by conservatives since the 1970’s as an agitprop, at times the accusations were focused by well financed propaganda outlets like the “Media Research Center”.

 

“bastions of alleged liberalism like the Washington Post and ABC News have grown increasingly cowed by false complaints of liberal bias and hence, progressively more sympathetic to the most outlandish conservative complaints.” -Alterman

In terms of political internet media, the results of the eBiz study are equally as telling.  9 of the top 15 are conservative websites, 50% more than the remaining 6, of which 4 being liberal and 2 centrist.

Most people would consider the following to have a conservative bias: Drudge Report, Politico, Newsmax, The Washington Times, Real Clear Politics, Free Republic, National Review, Townhall, and Michelle Malkin’s Hotair  Likewise most people would consider the following to have a liberal bias, ranging from center-left to strong leftist: Huffington Post, Salon, Daily Kos, TPM.  Opinions differ on the Christian Science Monitor and The Hill, although they predominantly appear to be more centrist in nature.

 

 

1 | HuffingtonPost
67 – eBizMBA Rank | 35,000,000 – Estimated Unique Monthly Visitors | 53 – Compete Rank | 26 – Quantcast Rank | 122 – Alexa Rank.

2 | Drudge Report
377 – eBizMBA Rank | 14,000,000 – Estimated Unique Monthly Visitors | 616 – Compete Rank | 71 – Quantcast Rank | 444 – Alexa Rank.

3 | Politico
769 – eBizMBA Rank | 5,000,000 – Estimated Unique Monthly Visitors | 794 – Compete Rank | 321 – Quantcast Rank | 1,192 – Alexa Rank.

4 | Salon
1,040 – eBizMBA Rank | 4,300,000 – Estimated Unique Monthly Visitors | 1,119 – Compete Rank | 440 – Quantcast Rank | 1,560 – Alexa Rank.

5 | Newsmax
1,296 – eBizMBA Rank | 4,200,000 – Estimated Unique Monthly Visitors | 699 – Compete Rank | 608 – Quantcast Rank | 2,581 – Alexa Rank.
Most Popular Political Websites | Updated 4/20/2011

6 | CSMonitor
1,453 – eBizMBA Rank | 4,000,000 – Estimated Unique Monthly Visitors | 1,091 – Compete Rank | 359 – Quantcast Rank | 2,910 – Alexa Rank.
Most Popular Political Websites | Updated 4/20/2011

7 | The Washington Times
2,208 – eBizMBA Rank | 2,500,000 – Estimated Unique Monthly Visitors | 1,637 – Compete Rank | 588 – Quantcast Rank | 4,398 – Alexa Rank.
Most Popular Political Websites | Updated 4/20/2011

8 | RealClearPolitics
2,366 – eBizMBA Rank | 2,000,000 – Estimated Unique Monthly Visitors | 2,386 – Compete Rank | 1,560 – Quantcast Rank | 3,152 – Alexa Rank.
Most Popular Political Websites | Updated 4/20/2011

9 | TheHill
2,410 – eBizMBA Rank | 1,700,000 – Estimated Unique Monthly Visitors | 1,652 – Compete Rank | 638 – Quantcast Rank | 4,939 – Alexa Rank.
Most Popular Political Websites | Updated 4/20/2011

10 | DailyKos
2,443 – eBizMBA Rank | 1,550,000 – Estimated Unique Monthly Visitors | 2,517 – Compete Rank | 1,363 – Quantcast Rank | 3,449 – Alexa Rank.
Most Popular Political Websites | Updated 4/20/2011

11 | FreeRepublic
2,564 – eBizMBA Rank | 1,500,000 – Estimated Unique Monthly Visitors | 2,170 – Compete Rank | 1,229 – Quantcast Rank | 4,293 – Alexa Rank.
Most Popular Political Websites | Updated 4/20/2011

12 | TalkingPointsMemo
2,741 – eBizMBA Rank | 1,350,000 – Estimated Unique Monthly Visitors | 2,837 – Compete Rank | 1,232 – Quantcast Rank | 4,155 – Alexa Rank.
Most Popular Political Websites | Updated 4/20/2011

13 | NationalReview
2,961 – eBizMBA Rank | 1,250,000 – Estimated Unique Monthly Visitors | 2,491 – Compete Rank | 1,787 – Quantcast Rank | 4,605 – Alexa Rank.
Most Popular Political Websites | Updated 4/20/2011

14 | Townhall
3,562 – eBizMBA Rank | 1,000,000 – Estimated Unique Monthly Visitors | 3,128 – Compete Rank | 1,505 – Quantcast Rank | 6,052 – Alexa Rank.
Most Popular Political Websites | Updated 4/20/2011

15 | HotAir
3,991 – eBizMBA Rank | 900,000 – Estimated Unique Monthly Visitors | 4,266 – Compete Rank | 3,677 – Quantcast Rank | 4,029 – Alexa Rank.

 

Conservative
Drudge Report
Politico
Newsmax
The Washington Times
Real Clear Politics
Free Republic
National Review
Townhall
Hotair

Liberal
Huffington Post
Salon
Daily Kos
TPM

Neutral
Christian Science Monitor
The Hill