A new study by the Center for Economic and Policy Research has found that C-SPAN overwhelmingly favors conservative think tanks in its coverage. The report, Tilting Rightward: C-SPAN’s Coverage of Think Tanks, found that conservatives received 44 percent of total think tank coverage, while conservative/libertarians received another 7 percent -- for a right-wing majority of 51 percent. Everything left-of-center received only 18 percent.

“C-SPAN is failing to live up to its mission of providing ‘a balanced presentation of points of view,’” said economist Mark Weisbrot, co-author of the report. “In a significant amount of its coverage – events and analysis by influential organizations shaping policy – C-SPAN is presenting opinions that, most of the time, are far to the right of most Americans. It is also lopsided by any common definition of the political spectrum, with a very large bias toward the right.”

The study examined C-SPAN’s 2006 coverage of the top 40 think tanks cited in the media over the past three years. Weisbrot and co-author Juan Antonio Montecino compiled the number of events, panel discussions, speeches, talk show appearances, and interviews with representatives of these think-tanks, as archived on C-SPAN’s website. The report's results are particularly alarming given the fact that Americans consider C-SPAN to be the third-most credible television news source, according to a Pew Research Center poll conducted last year.