Conscious of all the hot takes about its alleged liberal bias, ESPN contracted a research firm last month to survey its audience about any political tilt in its programming. The results from the study should be considered a win for the sports channel.

Approximately two-thirds (64%) of respondents who took the survey indicated that ESPN had found the right chemistrybetweensports news and political issues, while only 30% claimed to have detected a political bias.

Of those who sawa bias, 30% percent actually believed that ESPN expressed a conservative viewpoint.

Viewers who identified themselves as strong conservatives ranked ESPN at 7.2 using a 1-10 scale, according to the survey. Liberals gave ESPN a 7.0 ranking. A score of 8.0 was considered highly rated.

In a press release touting the results of the survey, ESPNs vice president of consumer insights Bary Blyn neglected to mention that of the viewers who saw a bias, 63% said that the sports channel swung too far to the left.

These answers certainly do not determinethat a good portionof ESPNs audience senses a liberal bias, as sportingnews.com suggested. Sporting News Michael McCarthy, who astutely noted that ESPNs press release omitted the liberal bias statistic, was quick to write that the survey in fact showed asubset of respondents, by a 2-to-1 margin, believe the network leans to the left politically. Buried later in McCarthys piece, the sports writer acknowledges that this subset of respondents only made up less than 2out of 10 surveyed a mere 19% percent of the total.

For all the histrionicsover ESPNs alleged liberal bias, the sports channels main audience doesnt seem to mind.

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Actually, most ESPN viewers don't think it has a liberal bias - Salon ... - Salon