Pakistani TV news channels seem to change their support for certain political parties and state institutions faster than a person would change their undergarments. Newspapers, on the other hand, do so in a more controlled manner. In the United Kingdom, one of the country’s largest daily, The Guardian, has for decades been a clear supporter of Britain’s left-leaning Labour Party. However, during England’s 2010 election, The Guardian switched its support to the centrist Liberal Party. The paper went back to supporting the Labour Party after the Liberal Party was routed in the election.
Newspapers in the UK (and their websites) are remarkably open about which political party they endorse. For example, two other major newspapers in Britain, The Daily Telegraph and Financial Times, are overtly pro-Conservative Party. Things in this respect are not as unambiguous in the United States, though. Many US newspapers do openly endorse their favourite presidential candidates during an election but they do not overtly support political parties the way British newspapers do.
According to a detailed study by Pamela Engel published in the Business Insider (October 21, 2014), US dailies, such as The Wall Street Journal, have a large conservative readership and thus have been aligned with the centre-right Republican Party. On the other hand, another prominent US daily, The New York Times, has almost always endorsed the centrist Democratic Party.
Do media houses keep in mind the political views of their consumers?
TV news channels in the US, on the other hand, have been a lot more open about which US parties they are aligned with. According to Engel’s study, CNN is more left-leaning (in the context of mainstream American politics) and Fox News is clearly on the right. This may also be understood as CNN being pro-Democratic-Party and FOX being pro-Republican.
A newspaper’s, TV channel’s or news website’s political orientation is largely based on the ideological disposition of the majority of its consumers. In her report, Engel demonstrated this by using a widespread survey conducted in 2014 by the Pew Research Centre which tried to determine which print or electronic news outlets — conservative, liberal or ‘neutral’ — Americans were getting their news from.
Choosing a political stance by news outlets is largely about catering to the needs of the outlet’s majority consumers. Thus, this also becomes a business decision as much as an ideological one.
But having said that, in an October 7, 2016 article, the managing editor of one of Denver’s largest dailies, The Denver Post, Linda Shapely writes that the editorial/opinions section is not just another section or department in a newspaper: it is a separate entity. The editorial is the opinion of this entity, a position that it takes on an issue. Shapely wrote that newspapers have always taken sides but more in an attempt to help leaders and readers find solutions to complicated issues.