Economy Continues Growth, Media Ignore Story
The Drudge Report has a front-page headline about the good news from the economy this morning. The headline links to an extensive story in Bloomberg News covering the economic news in detail. But it seems that for the majority of the media, this is not news that they wish to highlight.While the New York Times did not appear to consider this news as important as the report on the Viriginia Tech…
Knight Column: New Study Exposes Anti-gun Bias in Media
On Tuesday, Jesse Jackson, the Brady bunch -- not the TV folk but the anti-gun lobby -- and other liberal activists rallied against “the national scourge of illegal guns” in cities around the nation. The networks ignored the event, probably because turnout was so embarrassingly low. The Chicago Tribune reported that “about 200” piled out of three buses in Lake Barrington, Illinois, the Chicago-…
Bozell Column: Democrats Win Morning Show Primary
Watching network morning show anchors interview the Democratic presidential candidates often makes you wonder if you’ve seen tougher interviews on overnight acne-care infomercials. Their questions are often so simple and promotional that you wish they’d just go ahead and wear their "Hillary!" or "Obama ‘08" buttons on the set. There is no pretense of political balance. They are actively rooting…
ABC Praises Plan to Spend Highway Money on Obesity Fight
Bike paths or structurally-sound bridges. Which would you prefer? ABC “World News with Charles Gibson” must prefer bike paths judging by its August 27 broadcast. That evening “World News” promoted a report that “calls for a national strategy to reverse this [obesity] epidemic” including the use of federal highway money.
GMA Gets Its Fill of Food Police
Much like tasty snacks, the networks can never stop their addiction to “food police” groups like the Center for Science in the Public Interest.Yesterday morning it was Good Morning America that was shilling for them, saying, “Did you realize you were paying more for less food?” What was the target this time? The 100 calorie “snack packs,” that CSPI themselves have fought for. CSPI is upset about…
Modern Day ‘Saving Private Ryan’ in Iraq
A family in Clovis, California, which is near Fresno, has sadly become the modern day version of the Ryans, real-life brothers depicted in Steven Spielberg's acclaimed film "Saving Private Ryan" wherein all but one died serving his country in World War II. For the Hubbards, Nathan, the second of three brothers serving in Iraq, died Wednesday in a helicopter accident in the northern part of that…
Flashback: 'The Unnewsworthy Holocaust: TV News and Terror in Cambodia
In the wake of President George W. Bush's reminder Wednesday about how the “killing fields” of Cambodia followed the 1975 U.S. pullout from Vietnam and the region, a look back at a study, by William C. Adams and Michael Joblove, which documented how from 1975 to 1978 the three broadcast network evening newscasts, as well as the New York Times and Washington Post, virtually ignored the ongoing…
Nets Ignore Lowest Congressional Approval Rating in 33 Years
If George W. Bush's approval rating hit a low point for any president in 33 years, do you think the network evening news programs would have reported it? Maybe as the lead story, right? Well, a new Gallup poll was released on Tuesday stating that the approval rating for Congress tied the lowest point since Gallup began tracking such a thing, and none of the broadcasts networks thought it was…
Dem Debate: Stephanopoulos Never Challenged Candidates With Evidence S
Was ABC's George Stephanopoulos [file photo] moderating a presidential debate in Iowa today [transcript here], or running an internal Dem strategy session over how to most propitiously handle U.S. surrender in Iraq? Imagine that instead of being a former Clinton operative, you're a bona fide journalist dedicated to challenging candidates about their assumptions. When talk turned to Iraq, wouldn…
Will Nets Notice? After Iraq Visit, Previously Anti-war Dem Opposes Q
On November 17, 2005, Rep. Jack Murtha (D-Pa.), who had previously supported the Iraq war, announced his call for the withdrawal of U.S. troops. The story led all three broadcast network evening news reports.A mirror-image shift of position was reported today: a previously anti-war Dem has announced, after a visit to Iraq, that he now opposes withdrawal at this time. Will the MSM give anything…
Media's Volatile Coverage of Stock Market: 'Armageddon' or 'The Sky's
As the stock market went up and down over the past few weeks, media coverage also bounced from end-of-the-world rhetoric to rational analysis.CNBC’s Jim Cramer went on an impassioned rant August 6 calling for the Fed to reduce interest rates.“Bernanke needs to open the discount window. That is how bad things are out there … in the fixed income markets we have Armageddon,” said Cramer on “Stop…
