A Measure of Media Bias

Today's Drudge Report had an item about this report by UCLA professor Tim Groseclose and Jeffrey Milyo of the University of Missouri. So I googled the link to their original article. Here's the abstract:

Abstract: We measure media bias by estimating ideological scores for several major media outlets. To compute this, we count the times that a particular media outlet cites various think tanks and policy groups, then compare this with the times that members of Congress cite the same groups. Our results show a strong liberal bias: all of the news outlets we examine, except Fox News’ Special Report and the Washington Times, received scores to the left of the average member of Congress. Consistent with claims made by conservative critics, CBS Evening News and the New York Times received scores far to the left of center. The most centrist media outlets were PBS NewsHour, CNN’s Newsnight, and ABC’s Good Morning America; among print outlets, USAToday was closest to the center. All of our findings refer strictly to news content; that is we exclude editorials, letters, and the like.

Now that there's a quantitative method to conduct such research, maybe the Corporation for Public Broadcasting might contract with Groseclose and Milyo as ombudsmen to scientifically study their entire program lineup on radio and television--instead of hiring Ken Tomlinson's political cronies, or retired journalists who may have axes to grind?