Eastern Media Elite

The term “Eastern media elite” usually refers to the New York (NY) Times, frequently also the Washington (DC) Post, sometimes Time and Newsweek magazines, and sometimes the television national news divisions that broadcast from New York City. The term “Eastern media elite” has been cited in print since at least 1977. The Eastern media elite is liberal and leans to the Democratic Party.
 
The Washington Post‘s Dana Milbank did a humorous video about the Eastern media elite in 2008.
 
 
Google News Archive
21 February 1977, Ellensburg (WA) Daily Record,  “The Eastern ‘media elite’ criticized” by Jim McGiffin, pg. 4, col. 1:
Who make up this special group? Rothman (Stanley Rothman—ed.) says these earth-and-sky movers work for the three commercial TV networks, and their views are strongly shaped by what they read in the New York Times, Time and Newsweek magazines, and, to a lesser extent, the Washington Post.
 
14 May 1982, Marietta (GA) Daily Journal,  “It’s Right Vs. Left On Budget” by Jasper Dorsey, pg. 4A. cols. 4-5:
Public Opinion magazine reported the survey results of the Eastern media elite taken by Robert Lichter and Stanley Rothman, under the auspices of the Research Institute for International Change.
 
Google Books
Election 84: Search for a New Coalition:
Proceedings of the Allan Shivers Election Analysis Conference, November 17, 1984
Edited by Robert Campbell Jeffrey
Austin, TX: College of Communication, The University of Texas at Austin
1984
Pg. 42:
QUESTION: It is generally accepted that the eastern media elite lean toward the Democratic Party.
 
Google Books
Mass Media & American Politics
Edited by Doris Appel Graber
Washington, DC: CQPress
2006
Pg. 91:
Role Models
Although editors and reporters throughout the country take cues and follow interpretations about stories from the eastern media elite — the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and Washington Post — these journalists shape ...
 
San Diego (CA) Union-Tribune
THE EASTERN MEDIA ELITE, ONCE AGAIN OUT TO LUNCH
Written by | Chris Reed | 10:44 a.m., Mar 4, 2006
I like E.J. Dionne, a lucid Washington Post columnist who’s liberal without being unhinged and who is pleasantly contrarian on some issues.But his column on Rob Reiner’s crusade to bring universal preschool to California reminded me of all the condescending, superficial, cliche-ridden pieces written by Eastern establishment pundits during the 2003 recall campaign.Proposition 82 has lost its rosy halo
   
The Huffington Post
Dana Milbank Rocks The Eastern Media Elite
Huffington Post   Rachel Sklar
First Posted: 10/08/08 06:12 AM ET Updated: 05/25/11 01:45 PM ET
(...)
All this by way of giving kudos to these print outlets for making lemonade out of lemons — and nowhere was that more apparent at the RNC than in Dana Milbank’s hilarious, smartly constructed video at the RNC about “Easter Media Elites.” Not only was it a great and timely response to the ludicrous attacks on the media by the GOP, but it’s a hilarious use of WaPo resources (especially David Broder, the use of whom in a spoof of Eastern media elites is itself a punchline).