A new study by a UCLA political scientist has concluded that—surprise, surprise!—the mass media is largely biased, and biased to the left.

The study is being described as the “first successful attempt at objectively quantifying bias in a range of media outlets and ranking them accordingly.”

While the general conclusion of the study (“almost all major media outlets tilt to the left”) isn’t exactly news to those of us who live in the real world, some of the specific information is quite interesting and even surprising. For example, the study concludes that despite the moderate conservative leanings of The Wall Street Journal editorial page, the newspaper’s news pages show more liberal bias than even, believe it or not, The New York Times!

Of the 20 major media outlets studied, 18 scored left of center, with CBS’ “Evening News,” The New York Times and the Los Angeles Times ranking second, third and fourth most liberal behind the news pages of The Wall Street Journal.

Only Fox News’ “Special Report With Brit Hume” and The Washington Times scored right of the average U.S. voter.

The most centrist outlet proved to be the “NewsHour With Jim Lehrer.” CNN’s “NewsNight With Aaron Brown” and ABC’s “Good Morning America” were a close second and third.

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Since Groseclose and Milyo were more concerned with bias in news reporting than opinion pieces, which are designed to stake a political position, they omitted editorials and Op‑Eds from their tallies. This is one reason their study finds The Wall Street Journal more liberal than conventional wisdom asserts.