For weeks leading up to the midterm Nov. 4 election, I had the sense that the Democrat vs. Republican coverage in my Hays Daily newspaper was somewhat lopsided.

Those who know me, know I feel strongly that there is bias in most media. The bias, I feel, leans very strongly to the left, to the liberal left, to the Democrat liberal left. I, therefore, painstakingly, went through all my HDNews editions of the paper from October 12 right up to and including the day of the election of November 4.

I came across a grand total of 122 articles that had something to do with the election, which might in some way affect whether one would vote Democrat or Republican. I put Independent Greg Orman in the Democrat column since, obviously, that would be voting against the Republican Party even though not necessarily for Democrats.

I broke down my study into the following three categories: 1) articles in the body of the paper, excluding the Opinion section (44 writings), 2) Editorials and columnists in the Opinion section (27 writings), and 3) Reader Forum articles in the Opinion section (51 writings).

In the body of the paper, so to speak, including quite often front page news, out of 44 writings 33 favored Democrats (or Orman) and 11 favored Republicans. In percentages, that would be 75% for Democrats and 25% for Republicans.

In the Editorial and Columnist section of the paper, out of 27 writings 20 favored Democrats (or Orman) and seven favored Republicans. In percentages that would be 74% to 26%.

In the Reader Forum section there were 51 writings with 31 leaning Democrat and 20 leaning Republican. That would be 61% to 39%. I could not help but notice many, if not most, of these letters to the editor were from far-off Kansas locations, even some out of state and mostly favored Democrats.

If anyone is interested, my very detailed breakdown of the news during the period noted above can be obtained at the Hays Public Library, however, it was also submitted to the paper as well. I give the title of the article, author’s name when it is opinion, and how I labeled the writing.

Somebody might take issue with me on a little something here or there, but looking at the big picture, the picture is clear.

Is there bias in the media? You be the judge!

Les Knoll live in Victoria and Gilbert, Ariz.