We're used to hearing about President Bush's low approval ratings, but the
Rasmussen polling firm decided to measure the approval of a different institution:
Just 24% of American voters have a favorable opinion of the New York Times. Forty-four percent (44%) have an unfavorable opinion and 31% are not sure. The paper's ratings are much like a candidate's and divide sharply along partisan and ideological lines.
As blogger Don Surber notes, Bush has both higher favorability (35%) and higher unfavorability (61%) than the Times. But here is a finding that should trouble the folks over on Eighth Avenue (location of the Times's new headquarters):
By a 50% to 18% margin, liberal voters have a favorable opinion of the paper. By a 69% to 9% [sic], conservative voters offer an unfavorable view. The newspaper earns favorable reviews from 44% of Democrats, 9% of Republicans, and 17% of those not affiliated with either major political story.
Times people--including its ombudsman, as (Opinion Journal) noted Monday--resist the suggestion that theirs is a liberal newspaper. But Rasmussen's numbers offer empirical evidence that it is. The Times's approval rating is similar to that of an unpopular president not only in its overall level but also in the sharp partisan split that underlies that level.