Media and Labelling

I was curious about the number of times the words "liberal," "liberals," "conservative," and "conservatives" are used by various entities in the media. I was wondering if there might be a correlation between the usage of these terms, and a possible bias of some sort.

I google-raced "liberal OR liberals" versus "conservative OR conservatives" at each of the following websites.

...............liberal.conservative
whitehouse.gov.....28%......72%
c-span.org.........29%......71%
nytimes.com........32%......68%
cbsnews.com........33%......67%
cnn.com............37%......63%
abcnews.go.com.....38%......62%
latimes.com........39%......61%
foxnews.com........39%......61%
harpers.org........39%......61%
bushwatch.com......39%......61%
michaelmoore.com...40%......60%
washingtonpost.com.40%......60%
rightwingnews.com..41%......59%
msnbc.com..........41%......59%
prospect.org.......42%......58%
news.google.com....45%......55%
nationalreview.com.50%......50%
freerepublic.com...51%......49%
frontpagemag.com...54%......46%
dailykos.com.......55%......45%
chomsky.info.......59%......41%
anncoulter.com.....67%......33%
rushlimbaugh.com...88%......12%
drudge.com.........90%......10%
howardzinn.org....100%.......0%

I added together the number of total times the words were used and calculated a percentage. At first glance, I thought that, clearly, there was no correlation between usage of these words, and evidence of bias, because partisans of all shades are all over the place. (I am not sure how best to treat NBC, because nbc.com includes forums and doesn't seem to have transcripts of NBC news programs. Aren't those at MSNBC.com? Anyhow, I'm not sure. So I left it out.) It was most curious to me that the NYT, CBS, CNN, ABC, and sure, even FOX News were all clumped together.

Then I remembered a poll about political ideology.

http://www.harrisinteractive.com/harris_poll/index.asp?PID=285

"When asked whether they are conservative, moderate or liberal, a 40% plurality self-identify as moderates, four points ahead of the 36% who self identify as conservatives. Only 19% self identify as liberals. For much of the last thirty years, these numbers have barely changed. Since 1978, the conservatives have never been lower than 34% and never higher than 38%. Moderates have varied only between 39% and 42% and liberals have varied only between 17% and 20%. It is hard to think of another set of attitudinal questions that have been so extraordinarily stable."

When you take 36 conservatives added to 19 liberals, you get 55. Convert these groups into a percentage, and you have 65% conservatives and 34% liberals. In other words, the New York Times and CBS (the very heart of the so-called "Liberal Media") are mentioning liberals and conservatives in precisely the same ratio as they are found in nature.

Apparently, the facts are biased. Coincidence? I report, you decide.