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Politics : Just the Facts, Ma'am: A Compendium of Liberal Fiction -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Sully- who wrote (60206)	6/21/2007 7:51:01 AM
From: Sully-	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 90947

[W]hen the media put out a story that the economy is sinking, Democrats will toe the line regardless of what the reality is. How Liberal Dems, Major Media Perpetuate A Cycle Of Negativity By INVESTOR'S BUSINESS DAILY Posted Wednesday, June 20, 2007 4:30 PM PT Journalism: Last fall, when the jobless rate hit a five-year low of 4.4%, Vice President Cheney was asked by ABC's George Stephanopolous why the administration didn't get more credit for it. "Well," said Cheney, "you guys don't help." So much for the understatement of 2006. Cheney, of course, was referring to the now-obvious fact that even when there's good news about the economy, it's played down — or turned upside down — by the mainstream media. Coverage of that unemployment report, coming just before the congressional elections, was just one of many cases in point, as the Media Research Center (MRC) pointed out at the time. ABC reported on the "exceptionally low" rate, as Stephanopolous described it — albeit 19 minutes into its evening newscast. But "CBS, and NBC to a lesser extent, spun the good news into bad," MRC observed. "Though wages had grown by 3.9% over the (previous) 12 months, CBS Evening News anchor Katie Couric used the lower unemployment news as a segue to ask: 'But do the jobs out there pay enough? A big issue in the battle for Congress this year is how much the lowest-paid workers make.' "Viewers then saw a full story on the plight of minimum wage workers and how raising it is 'resonating' with voters." No wonder, said MRC, that an ABC News/Washington Post poll taken just before the election found more than half of Americans (53%) thought the economy was "not so good" or "poor." "The big broadcast networks have buried the good economic news under an avalanche of bad news stories," MRS concluded. "While the real world offered good news, the networks presented pain." A study by MRC's Business & Media Institute of a year's worth of economic coverage on ABC, CBS and NBC found "more than twice as many stories and briefs focused on negative aspects of the economy (62%) compared to good news (31%)." Anecdotes included in the study were even more striking than the statistics. When gasoline prices rose in the spring of 2006, for instance, "the networks went hunting for victims." ABC profiled a woman who claimed she had to pawn her wedding rings to put gas in the tank of her husband's truck, and CBS said the elderly were cutting down on what they ate. When Democrats pushed for an election-year hike in the minimum wage, CBS "obligingly showcased victims," including Americans "at the bottom of the pay scale" found "sweltering on the streets of Washington just blocks from the Capitol." When the Labor Department announced a previously overlooked 810,000 new jobs that had been created, none of the evening newscasts said a word about it. Other polls have made similar findings, including our own IBD/TIPP surveys. Our latest, taken early this month, found a correlation between coverage of the economy in the predominantly liberal media and the views of Democrats. "For example," says Raghavan Mayur, president of TechnoMetrica Market Intelligence, IBD's polling partner, "when the media put out a story that the economy is sinking, Democrats will toe the line regardless of what the reality is. "This in turn will further provide credence for the media's view, and on and on in an ongoing circle of liberal negativity." As evidence that Democrats generally take a negative view of the economy, Mayur cites the IBD/TIPP Economic Optimism Index in which readings over 50 indicate optimism and under 50 flag pessimism. Democrats' scores have averaged under 50 in six of the seven years since the IBD/TIPP Poll began. By contrast, Republicans have averaged over 60 every year. As for Democrats "toeing the media line," Mayur noted the latest poll showing that: • Only 49% of Democrats (vs. 76% of Republicans) agreed that economic coverage has been too negative. • Only 49% of Democrats agreed (vs. 80% of Republicans) that the media favors a liberal point of view. • Only 47% of Democrats disagreed (vs. 74% of Republicans) that coverage of the economy has been fair and objective. "In each and every case tested," said Mayur, "Democrats wholeheartedly supported and agreed with the media's take on the economy. Closer friends would be hard to find." Democrats were also much more bearish than Republicans on specific economic issues. For example: • Fewer than one in eight of Democrats (7%) feel the Bush tax cuts have been positive for the economy, compared with 58% of Republicans. • Two of three Democrats (67%) think a recession is likely in the next 12 months, vs. 42% of Republicans. • Almost four of five Democrats (78%) consider the federal budget deficit a major problem vs. 56% of Republicans. • Almost three in five Democrats (58%) consider the U.S. trade deficit a major problem vs. 39% of Republicans. ibdeditorials.com