To: i-node who wrote (159146 ) 1/29/2003 9:51:20 AM From: Alighieri Read Replies (2) | Respond to So help me...you have no ethics. Read the way your supposedly neutral media watch organization begins the articles...Two examples below: Liberals want this year’s election campaigns to be dominated by economic issues, and no wonder: TV news has organized the discussion of key economic issues such as tax cuts, prescription drugs, and new government regulations on business in ways that aid the liberal cause and give short shrift to conservative arguments. Media Research Center (MRC) analysts reviewed economic policy news on ABC, CBS, CNN, FNC and NBC and discovered that this summer’s television coverage was almost entirely organized around liberal themes and arguments. Liberal politicians have made no secret of the fact that they hope this fall’s congressional elections revolve around economic issues, including the federal budget deficit, lack of a prescription drug entitlement for senior citizens and this year’s corporate accounting scandals. Perhaps one reason for this desire is that liberals watch Dan Rather, Tom Brokaw and Peter Jennings every night, and they recognize that TV news has framed the discussion of all of these important economic issues in a way that benefits liberals and gives short shrift to conservative arguments. FAIR classified each guest by both political ideology and party affiliation. Only two ideological categories were used: conservative and non-conservative. Guests affiliated with openly conservative think tanks, magazines or advocacy groups, or who promote openly conservative views, were labeled as such. All other guests were grouped together in the non-conservative category, including centrists, liberals and progressives; non-political guests (e.g., Cheney's heart doctor); and "objective" journalists who do not avow any ideology. Republicans were not automatically counted as conservatives: Moderate Republicans like Christopher Shays, Christine Todd Whitman and David Gergen, for example, were classified as non-conservatives. In other words, 89 percent of guests with a party affiliation were Republicans.
