In what might not come as a shock to German or even European citizens in general, a new survey has confirmed what many already suspected: journalists in Germany sympathise with or vote for the governing coalition’s Green party over all other parties, while none of them like the right-wing AfD (Alternative für Deutschland) party.
Though the recently published survey does not specify who the 525 journalists who participated in the survey work for, it is not hard to guess that most of them are employed by the mainstream liberal private and public media.
In the latest nationwide opinion polls, the Greens, who have angered voters by forcing through tax hikes and radical climate policies, have slumped to 9%—yet they are favoured by 41% of the journalists that took part in the survey. This comes as no surprise, knowing how mainstream media regularly fail to convey the real concerns of ordinary citizens.
23% of journalists said they could not name any party that they preferred, while 16% lean toward the Social Democrats, who incidentally also enjoy 16% of the popular support.
Only 8% of journalists named the centre-right CDU as their preferred choice, despite the party currently being the most popular party in Germany with 32% support.
Also not surprisingly, the right-wing opposition AfD party, which has been campaigning for strict asylum rules and an end to illegal migration, got no votes from the journalists, despite its recent electoral successes and its second place (17%) in opinion polls.
The left-wing nationalist Bündnis Sahra Wagenknecht, which has also been challenging mainstream conceptions on issues such as immigration and the war in Ukraine, got only 1% vote from journalists, while it is polling at 7% nationwide.
74% of journalists who took part in the survey said journalism in Germany is credible, and 82% said that most of the news can be trusted.
The findings of the survey reinforce the revelations of another recent study, by the University of Mainz, which found that the majority of journalists in Germany tend to lean towards the parties of the left of centre. The authors of the study warned that public broadcasters will sooner or later lose the trust of their right-wing viewers if they continue to neglect them.
As we recently reported, the public broadcaster NDR lost a series of court battles after it refused to remove factually false stories about the AfD from its website.
