The Media's Pro-Business Bias
Today, the Center for American Progress hosted a panel
discussion to mark the release
of a new report analyzing how
the media covers the economy. The report, "Journalists
Give Workers
Business," finds
that "the media ignores
ordinary workers and instead
covers economic issues
from the perspective of business." The analysis by David Madland,
Director of CAP's American Worker Project, looked at
newspaper
and television coverage of unemployment, minimum wage, trade,
and
credit card debt issues in 2007 and concluded that "the perspective of
workers is largely
missing from media coverage,
while the views of
business are frequently presented." A front page story in Wednesday's
Washington Post, for instance, asked why Americans are "gloomier
than
the economy" but avoided talking
to a single worker. The article failed to mention
that
incomes for most workers have declined
since 2001, that health
care
and
retirement benefits have become scarcer and more expensive, and that
inequality has risen to unprecedented levels.
WORKERS
SHUT OUT OF THE DEBATE: While
conservative media critics often claim that the mainstream media has a
strong liberal
bias, the report
suggests that
the bias of elite business sources overwhelms any partisan divide.
After
studying
economy-related articles from
the Los Angeles Times, New York Times,
USA Today, Wall Street Journal, and Washington Post, and monitoring
the economic news reports on ABC News, CBS News, NBC News, CNN, FOX
News, and CNBC throughout 2007, the study concludes
that "representatives of business were quoted
or cited nearly
two-and-a-half times as frequently
as were workers or their union
representatives." Specifically, "in coverage of both the minimum wage
and trade, the
views of businesses were sourced more than one-and-a-half times as
frequently as those of workers." In stories about employment,
"businesses were quoted or cited over six
times as frequently as were
workers," according to the
report. In fact, only in coverage of
credit
card debt "was coverage more balanced, presenting the perspectives
of
ordinary citizens in the
proportion as those of business," suggesting that the media "can find
out how complex economic issues
will impact ordinary people and present the news from their
perspective."
WHY
BIAS MATTERS: The report
notes, "our belief in democratic debate demands informed citizens
and requires that different points of view are allowed to be heard." An
April 7, 2007 article
in the New York Times, however, undermined this ideal.
In fact, the story, which discussed "whether the job market is strong,"
sourced economists representing business and advocacy groups, but did
not offer the worker's perspective. This type of coverage "is repeated
again and again," artificially narrowing the spectrum of debate and
misinforming policy makers and the general public of alternate
viewpoints. Moreover, the media "has the ability to help determine
which issues people think are important"
and "can even influence
how people vote." Madland notes, for example, that "studies have found
that as Fox News expanded into new towns, these areas were increasingly
likely to vote for Republican
candidates," while viewers of ABC
News were "influenced to vote for Ronald Reagan over Walter Mondale
because Peter Jennings used more positive facial cues when talking
about the president than he did about the challenger."
WHY BIAS OCCURS: Madland
argues that "the most common explanation for the kind of bias is that
journalists have a preference
for elite sources"
because it is "easier for a reporter to talk to a
professional, such as a business spokesperson, than to find a good
quote from a worker or ordinary citizen." To that end, a June 26, 2007
article in the Wall Street Journal about the need for the nation's
largest financial service companies to "defuse
protectionist sentiment
in the United States and promote free-trade agreements" mentions that
such
agreements would meet "stiff
resistance from organized
labor," but it does
not ask labor to explain its opposition. In addition, the
media watchdog
group Fairness and Accuracy in
Reporting (FAIR)
notes that "mergers in the news industry have
accelerated" the growth of large
news conglomerates, further limiting the
spectrum of viewpoints that have access to mass media and
undermining
journalistic standards. Whatever
the source of the bias, Madland's study
suggests that the media are capable of providing much more balanced
coverage of economic issues.
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"DOJ Pride, the association for gay employees at the Justice Department, held its first Pride event in five years at the department's Great Hall Wednesday." The event was made possible because Attorney General Michael Mukasey in January revised the equal employment policy barring discrimination in the department.
VERMONT: "The state auditor of Vermont said Thursday he is being called to active duty in Afghanistan and plans to run for re-election while serving."
ARIZONA: Authorities begin the first coordinated push to measure and fix the environmental damage from uranium contamination in Navajo lands.
IOWA: "The sprawling network of levees...was never designed to withstand the magnitude of a 500-year flood," Christian Science Monitor notes.
THINK
PROGRESS:
Rep. Don Young's (R-AK) "A team" of lobbyists: "These people can talk
to whomever they want."
WONK
ROOM: Better late than never:
Addressing sexual violence as a
security threat.
ATTACKERMAN:
Those who want to keep a limited presence in Iraq have to answer: How
do you keep the commitment limited?
GLENN
GREENWALD: Warrantless spying
"compromise" is worse than expected.
"[T]here is no reason to fear
any [global warming] in the future."
-- Global warming denier and Weather Channel founder John
Coleman, 6/13/08
VERSUS
"In
the future, with continued global warming, heat waves and heavy
downpours are very likely to further increase in frequency and
intensity. ... The strongest cold season storms are likely to become
more frequent, with stronger winds and more extreme wave heights."
-- National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, 6/19/08
