|
|
|
| Current Issue |
|
|
| Resources |
|
|
|
Singing Out of Tune on the Economy
| Article
# : |
19906 |
|
|
Section : |
CURRENT ISSUES
|
| Issue
Date : |
4 / 1992 |
2,151 Words |
| Author
: |
Tim Graham
Tim Graham is director of media analysis at the Media Research
Center, a press-watch institute based in Alexandria, Virginia. |
That does not mean it is time to blame the messenger: The first national recession in almost 10 years is no time for "happy news," But those Americans who have to watch the news because it depresses them should suspect a Gresham's Law of reporting: Bad news drives out good news. When pollsters asked if the media drove the recession with overly negative news, a majority said no, possibly because it sounds like an excuse for President Bush. But those respondents would be wrong: Major media reporting on the economy is regularly more negative than is warranted.
Doubters should remember that bad economic news also dominated the Reagan years, as implausible as that might seem now. In the midst of the current recession, the boom years of the 1980s are beginning to look even better. In 1988, Virginia Commonwealth University Prof. Ted Smith released a study entitled "The Vanishing Economy." Smith reviewed 13,915 ABC, CBS, and NBC evening news stories on the economy aired during three one-year periods: July 1 to June 30, 1982-83, 1984-85, and 1986-87. He found that as the economy improved, the amount of economic news declined, and the news actually grew more negative.
No Balance At All
The media's negative bias is legendary, which is not entirely its fault. By and large, people stand more ready to believe the worst and caste a skeptical eye at smiley-faced good news. But the media, especially television, offer no balance of negative and positive, often completely ignoring positive economic trends. The media's liberal bias, which is also legendary, is entirely its fault, and the prospect of a conservative president's changing the nation's economic course cried for the best of both biases: negative and liberal.
In the throes of the current recession, the media's bias is easily proven by what they have not explored. The press corps has not given much time to conservative claims that the Bush administration's acquiescence in the face of new bills that cause more litigation and regulation has stifled productivity. Liberal reporters and editors consider the Clean Air Act, the Americans with Disabilities Act, and the Civil Rights Act major accomplishments, but they are also costly to the employers who are laying people off. Likewise, Bush's tax increases are silently avoided when recession scapegoating begins.
Here's an even better example of bias: In 1987, the National Conservative Foundation tracked the use of the term "Reaganomics" in
...
Read Full Article
Look for this article in Ask.com
|
|
