• by The Editor , January 20, 2017

During the course of our 2016 Presidential Campaign coverage, I received numerous complaints from readers expressing concern that our coverage was biased.

While some of our opinion-based columns -- including my own -- have explicitly expressed our personal political beliefs, I’d like to think our news coverage remains fair and balanced, if not objective. At least, we strived for it to be.

Since we surveying industry executives on their sentiment about the prospects for Trump’s Presidency (see related news story), I asked our own editorial team -- our news reporting and editing staff, as well as our columnists -- to complete the same survey.

The findings show that MediaPost’s editorial team does indeed have a pronounced anti-Trump bias.

In terms of the impact of Trump’s presidency on us professionally, only 24% of our editorial team picked the top two (better), while 52% selected the bottom two (worse) boxes.

In terms of the impact the Trump Administration would have on us personally, the bias is even more clear. Only 6% picked the top two, while 82% picked the bottom two boxes.

Those results are somewhat skewed, because one staffer filled in a “zero” and another filled in a “03” personally, but we rounded up for statistical consistency.

“Middle America needs help to thrive again,” one of our staff reporters offered in her verbatim response, adding: “Under Trump, I believe America will see tax reform, changes in trade, and support for industries like manufacturing that President Obama couldn't or didn't know how to give. Someone strong needs to step in. I think Trump has the backbone to do it.”

“I’m white, college-educated, past menopause, and have terrific (and practically free) health benefits provided by the U.S. government, so I guess I could argue Trump might not have any impact, on a personal level,” volunteered the MediaPost journalist who wrote in a “-3,” adding, “But it feels worse already -- many friends and extended family members rely on the ACA, and it is horrifying to see their panic. And as the mother of daughters, I’m really upset by what I see as a steady assault on women, from defunding Planned Parenthood to what I believe is misogyny from Trump. And as the mother of sons, my stepson just enlisted, and is in basic training as we speak. So of course I worry about what kind of crazy wars he might be sent into.”

In full disclosure, one of our leading columnists had a split decision on Trump’s impact on him professionally: A zero, because “he’s trying to delegitimize the press,” and a five, because “my profile is going way up.” We rounded his result to a 2.5.