Excerpts
While President Barack Obama pushes an August 7th deadline to get a health care bill – and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid keeps letting Republicans and right-wing Democrats run the timetable – the watchdog group Media Matters has exposed skewed media coverage of the health care debate. In two comprehensive analysis of major newspapers and television news channels, the non-partisan reports prove that setbacks to the “public option” receive disproportionate exposure to stories showing support. The AMA (American Medical Association)’s opposition to a public option, for example, received nearly twice as much exposure as the group’s endorsement of the House Democratic bill that includes a public option. Both studies are re-published beneath the fold, and raise questions about why the traditional media has let the insurance industry’s agenda frame this issue – at a time when polls show an overwhelming majority of Americans support a “public option.”
REPORT: On Health Care Reform, Networks Highlight Perceived Setbacks Far More than Progress
Following the June 10 publication of a New York Times article reporting that the AMA “will oppose creation of a government-sponsored insurance plan,” broadcast and cable news networks ran a total of 23 segments from June 11 through June 14 that mentioned or discussed the AMA's reported stance, according to a search of transcripts available in the Nexis database. By contrast, following the July 16 announcement by the AMA that it supported passage of the House Democrats' health care reform bill, the networks ran a total of 12 segments from July 16 through July 20 mentioning or discussing the AMA’s endorsement:
July 2 analysis of an updated version of the bill, the CBO concluded that the legislation would cover more of the uninsured for a lower price
The above charts say it all, headline reporting of the bad and incomplete evaluations while almost silence on the final (full) evaluation of the plan.
"Explaining the Media’s Anti-Obama Bias" by Randy Shaw, Beyond Chron
Excerpts
A front-page story in the July 24 New York Times (“For Public, Obama Didn’t Fill in Health Blanks”) describes how Craig Brown, a 36-year old father of four, got increasingly agitated as he watched President Obama’s July 22 press conference on health care. Brown and his wife said that Obama and the Democrats “had not convinced them of the need for radical change,” that they were not convinced the system was broken, but that even it was, they were “not sure the government is the solution.” But in highlighting the Browns, the Times selected one of the nation’s least representative families. The Browns were among only 4% of African-Americans who voted for John McCain over Barack Obama, and using them to assess public attitudes toward health reform is like interviewing Clarence Thomas to get the nation’s pulse on civil rights. The Times has been almost consistently anti-reform in its news coverage of health care reform, and cable and network television news coverage has been even worse. Despite the November election results and high ratings generated by Obama’s election and inauguration, the traditional media’s longstanding opposition to progressive change continues.
The blogosphere is now filled with stories of strong media bias against President Obama’s health care reform. In fact, even skeptical progressives seem surprised that a traditional media that was so excited about the Obama presidency has now turned so strongly against “The Change We Need.”
I am also a little surprised, mostly by the obviousness of the media’s agenda. When McCain supporters disproportionately represent public attitudes, and the media gives fifteen times the coverage to a negative CBO report on a draft health plan than it does to its positive report on the final version, then the traditional media’s hostile agenda is transparent.
There are two chief reasons for this.
- The Audience for News
Younger voters, and those of color, strongly backed Obama, but these are not the primary viewers of cable news or subscribers to daily newspapers. This group remains disproportionately white and male, the demographic most likely to vote Republican.- Corporate Media Ownership
It has been decades since Noam Chomsky described the traditional media as implementing its corporate owners’ political agenda. Under this view, Obama’s success at securing newspaper endorsements reflected corporate America’s desperate desire to save capitalism, rather than as an endorsement of universal health care, immigration reform, EFCA or strong climate-change measures
Jim DeMint was Right
South Carolina Republican Senator James Demint has taken a lot of heat by saying that health care could be Obama’s “Waterloo,” and that stopping progressive change here will prevent it elsewhere. But Demint was simply openly expressing what is heard in editorial offices, and among the corporate owners of traditional media.
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