This story was originally published by the WND News Center.

A new study has revealed the stunning level of apparent bias among journalists across America, as only a tiny fraction, 3.4%, are willing to identify themselves as Republicans.

A report at NewsBusters cites the Syracuse University study, from its Newhouse School of Public Communications.

"In the last 10 years, the proportion of Democrats has increased to 36.4% and the proportion of Independents has ticked upwards to 51.7%, while the already low Republican share has been cut in half," the report said.

In 2022, just 3.4% of journalists were Republicans.

That figure was 18% in 2002 and 25.7% in 1971.

As with most professions, conservatives have been increasingly excluded or purged from the ranks of journalists.

If you wonder why the media is the way it is today, this is why. pic.twitter.com/AuZ8iCMiwQ

— Kevin Bass PhD MS (@kevinnbass) December 27, 2023

The report continued, "It's fair to guess that journalists who choose 'independent' are attempting to look nonpartisan, but we can safely guess a large share of them are Biden-Harris voters."

The numbers came from an online survey of 1,600 U.S. journalists that was done just last year and follows a series of similar surveys dating back to 1971.

"When the first iteration of the study came out over 50 years ago, 35.5% of respondents said they were Democrats, 25.7% said they were Republicans, and 32.5% said they were Independents," the report explained. "The percentage that calls themselves Democrats or independents have bounced around over the years, with the proportion of Democrats reaching a high of 44.1% in 1992."

NewsBusters explained, "Surveys of journalists across the country in local newsrooms used to provide a more bipartisan picture, but the national media has been severely liberal since Robert and Linda Richter and Stanley Morgan published The Media Elite studies in 1981. They found over 90 percent of national journalists picked Lyndon Johnson over Barry Goldwater in 1964 and over 80 percent picked Hubert Humphrey over Richard Nixon in 1968."

However, according to Gallup the division among all Americans is far different, with independents making up about 40% of the population and Democrats and Republicans each about 29%.

Gallup also pointed out that only 11% of Republicans have a "great deal" or "fair amount" of confidence in the media to report issues fairly and accurately.

The survey said, "Overall, the findings suggest that the past decade has had significant effects on U.S. journalists, some more negative than positive. Compared to 2013, the latest demographic profile reveals that U.S. journalists are now slightly more educated on average and more likely to identify as Democrats or Independents.

"While the gender pay gap has narrowed, there are still significantly more men than women in the profession, and fewer racial or ethnic minorities than in the general population. U.S. journalists today are slightly more satisfied with their work and more likely to say they have complete autonomy to select stories.

"However, about six in 10 journalists say that journalism is headed in the wrong direction, and more than four in 10 say that that their news staffs have shrunk in 2021 rather than remained the same or grown."

Further, the study found: "U.S. journalists continue to rely heavily on social media in their daily work, despite more than half of the journalists also thinking social media have negative impacts on their profession. Most use social media to check for breaking news and to monitor what other news organizations are doing, and few use these interactive media for interviewing sources. One of the starkest findings is the gender differences in abuse now experienced by a majority of journalists. Female journalists were 7-to-14 times more likely to have experienced sexism and about 10 times more likely to have encountered threats of sexual violence, both online and offline."

Only 22.2% said the industry is going in the "right direction," and only 28.9% said they are "very satisfied" with their jobs.

Worrisome, however, is the 69.8% who say that using documents "without authorization" "may be justified." Nearly one-third same the same about using "personal documents" such as letters and photographs "without permission."