Now, the text of the July 22 Media Reality Check:
Every four years, network reporters complain about the supposed
lack of "news" at the two party conventions. During the 1996
Republican convention, ABC's Ted Koppel decided the event was not
worthy of his time. "This convention is more of an infomercial
than a news event," he decried on the August 13, 1996 Nightline.
Four years later, on the July 30, 2000 CBS Evening News, Dan
Rather scoffed that the GOP convention was just "a
well-orchestrated, pre-scripted, week-long infomercial designed to
sell the Republican presidential ticket and get corporate donors
to pony up more for the fall campaign."
But when these journalists show up to cover the conventions they
say are so irrelevant, they do so in ways that favor liberals and
undermine conservatives, according to a review of 16 years of
research by the MRC. And journalists are becoming a bigger part of
the story. This year, the broadcast networks will offer just three
hours of live coverage for each party. That means the average
voter -- one who doesn't spend the week watching cable -- will
hear far more from TV talking heads on the regular morning and
evening news shows than from politicians giving prime time
speeches.
That's not a neutral shift: As the coverage includes less of the
actual convention, the liberally-skewed analysis of network
reporters becomes even more dominant than in previous years. We've
identified three themes from past convention coverage that are
likely to make it onto your TV screens during next week's
Democratic convention in Boston and next month's GOP convention in
New York:
THEME #1: DISGUISE DEMOCRATS' LIBERALISM
For sixteen years, network reporters have consistently labeled the
Democratic Party -- whether headed by Al Gore, Bill Clinton or
Michael Dukakis -- as moderate, while the Republican Party was
always portrayed as more ideological, whether their nominee was
George W. Bush, his father or Bob Dole.
From 1988 to 1996, MRC analysts counted the ideological labels
applied by reporters during ABC's, CBS's, CNN's and NBC's prime
time convention coverage. They found reporters used the
"conservative" label for Republicans six times more often than a
"moderate" label, while the ideological branding of Democrats was
nearly balanced.
[For more on past convention coverage from 1984 to 1996:
mrccyberalert.c.topica.com ]
Even in 1988, when the Democrats nominated the liberal Michael
Dukakis, nearly half of the 86 labels applied to Democrats called
the party "moderate" or "conservative." That same year, nearly all
of the 214 labels assigned to the GOP called the party
"conservative" or used even harsher terms like "hard right" or
"far right." Reporter Mary Tillotson told CNN viewers she smelled
a "conservative odor" in the New Orleans Superdome where the GOP
convention was held.
[ For more on 1988 convention coverage:
mrccyberalert.c.topica.com ]
In 1992, Tom Brokaw described the Democrats as having "moved to
the center since the 1988 campaign," even though NBC had helped
cast the Dukakis Democrats as "centrists." But reporters once
again stressed how the Republicans were "conservative" -- 118 out
of 131 labels.
[For more on 1996 convention coverage:
mrccyberalert.c.topica.com ]
The same disparity was evident in coverage of the 2000
conventions. During MSNBC's coverage of the Republican convention,
Andrea Mitchell scolded New York Governor George Pataki: "You're
talking here tonight about being more inclusive, yet 59 percent of
the people here describe themselves as conservative."
[For more on that night of coverage in 2000 on NBC:
mrccyberalert.c.topica.com ]
The next night, August 1, Tom Brokaw insisted that Republicans
weren't really as moderate as they might seem: "This is the
convention of inclusion, so-called. The platform, however,
represents the ideology of these conservative delegates. It is
very conservative, especially on issues like abortion."
[For about coverage that night of the convention:
mrccyberalert.c.topica.com ]
While reporters disparaged GOP attempts to attract centrist
voters, they worked to preserve the premise that Democrats were
fielding a moderate, even conservative ticket. "This is the most
conservative Democratic ticket in at least 50 years," claimed
CNN's Bill Schneider.
THEME #2: ASK QUESTIONS FROM LIBERAL SCRIPT
A tough interviewer would confront politicians of both parties
with the best arguments of their opponents, letting viewers decide
who made the best case. But MRC's content analyses of the 1988,
1992 and 1996 conventions showed network journalists were far more
likely to pose liberal questions to Republican guests than ask
Democrats to respond to a conservative agenda.
In 1996, for example, Tom Brokaw challenged a Republican speaker,
a rape victim who advocated victim's rights: "This is a party that
is dominated by men," Brokaw told Jan Licence. "Do you think
before tonight they thought very much about what happens in
America with rape?" But a few weeks later at the Democratic
convention, Brokaw hit HHS Secretary Donna Shalala from the left
for backing a welfare bill that he portrayed as mean-spirited: "If
you were a poor single mother in a poor rural state in America,
without many resources...wouldn't you be slightly terrified
looking into the next two years?"
[For more on the 1996 convention contrast:
mrccyberalert.c.topica.com ]
Coverage was similarly skewed in 2000. On the first day of the
Republican convention, CNN's Candy Crowley asked New York's Pataki
to attack his party from the left: "You and others who are for
abortion rights...were frozen out of the platform. What does that
say, if anything, about compassionate conservatism and the broad
tent?"
[For more on coverage that night:
mrccyberalert.c.topica.com ]
Taking a similar tack, ABC's Peter Jennings suggested a speech by
Colin Powell provided the GOP with an "unusual sense of
inclusion," and asked the retired General: "Do you ever feel used
by the Republican Party?"
[For more on treatment of Powell's speech:
mrccyberalert.c.topica.com ]
But during the Democratic convention, reporters did not ask
liberals to justify their policies. Instead, reporters worried
that the ticket of Al Gore and Joe Lieberman wasn't liberal
enough. "How do you feel about Lieberman?" NBC's Andrea Mitchell
asked Senator John Kerry during MSNBC's live coverage. "He is
certainly less liberal than you, and there's been some criticism
of his positions....Do you think he can embrace all of the party?"
Kerry vouched for Lieberman, calling him a "good Democrat."
[For more on that theme:
mrccyberalert.c.topica.com ]
THEME #3: HYPE REPUBLICAN CONTROVERSIES
In 1988, reporters greeted newly-named VP choice Dan Quayle with a
frenzy of hostile coverage about his service in the National Guard
and qualifications for national office. CBS's Lesley Stahl called
it "the vice presidential pick that ate the Republican
convention," as if CBS's editorial choices played no role in the
deluge of negative coverage.
But even leaving the huge Quayle story aside, the MRC found TV
reporters in 1988 raised other GOP controversies eight times more
often than all Democratic scandals combined, including serious
ethical charges against then-Speaker of the House Jim Wright, who
later resigned.
[For more on ABC's jihad against Dan Quayle:
mrccyberalert.c.topica.com ]
In 1992, the networks pounded Republicans for rhetoric that was
supposedly too negative, yet when Jesse Jackson compared Quayle to
the Biblical baby-killing King Herod, none of the networks called
that "mean" or "personal." That same year, as reporters castigated
Republicans for a supposedly exclusionary message, neither ABC nor
CBS mentioned that a pro-life Democrat, Pennsylvania Governor Bob
Casey, was barred from speaking at the Democrats' convention.
[For details about 1992 convention coverage:
mrccyberalert.c.topica.com ]
In 2000, allegations of misconduct involving his 1996 campaign
fundraising hung over Al Gore (one of his fund-raisers, Maria
Hsia, had been convicted earlier in the year on five counts of
money laundering), but the networks pretended otherwise. "Al Gore
has been perhaps the most active Vice President in American
history, and there's not a hint of scandal associated with Gore's
personal behavior," ABC's Ted Koppel insisted on the August 14
Nightline.
[For more on the lack of media interest in Hsia:
mrccyberalert.c.topica.com ]
Watch for this sort of bias over the next few weeks: Republicans
are the ideologues, Republicans are embroiled in controversy, and
conservative policies are questionable, while Democrats are
utterly uncontroversial moderates with sensible (not liberal)
policies.
END Reprint of Media Reality Check
With the broadcasts networks planning to only air three hours
of each convention, with much of that devoted to speeches, we'll
probably again, as in 2000, find it difficult to complete a
numerical study of ABC, CBS and NBC convention coverage. But
there's still CNN, MSNBC and FNC and even PBS. |
