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Convention Coverage: Microcosm of Media Bias
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20556 |
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CURRENT ISSUES
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11 / 1992 |
2,084 Words |
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Tim Graham
Tim Graham is director of media analysis at the Media Research
Center, a press-watch institute based in Alexandria, Virginia. |
The post-election media seminars on the accuracy and fairness of the coverage of the 1992 presidential election may begin and end around the media's differing treatments of the two party conventions. Network news viewers saw a Democratic convention portrayed as a unified gathering behind a moderate platform and moderate ticket and then saw a Republican convention portrayed as a fractured fight dominated by unusually conservative themes expected to alienate the electorate.
To effectively measure the differences in convention coverage, the Media Research Center recorded and analyzed all the networks' prime time convention coverage, and the contrast was striking in a number of areas.
Take the example of labeling--the description of the political stands of both camps, and whether they were mainstream or out of the mainstream. In New York, Democrats were dubbed moderates or conservatives more often than as liberals by a margin of 51-38. But reporters did not once label Gov. Bill Clinton as a liberal and not once call Sen. Al Gore (American Conservative Union lifetime rating: 11 percent) a liberal. Not once did the networks describe the Democratic platform, which endorsed abortion on demand, homosexual rights, and at least $ 150 billion in tax increases, as liberal. The whole proceeding was "mainstream."
Indeed the public was treated to a nonstop rewrite of history, as reporters echoed the words of CBS reporter Richard Threlkeld: "Both Gore and Clinton are centrist, some would say conservative." CBS reporter Susan Spencer told viewers: "I think that it's fair to say that if you talk to delegates, even liberal Democrats now, they think that Al Gore and Bill Clinton could be a winning ticket. They're willing to swallow their problems with such a conservative pair in hope of winning."
But when Republicans gathered in Houston, the media were not about to let the word "mainstream" enter their lexicon. No, it was important to stress the "conservative" label more than 120 times. In fact, both ABC and CNN attached more labels to Republicans Monday night than they did to Democrats during the entire week in New York.
Worse Than Conservative
Republicans welcome the term "conservative," while Democrats run from the world "liberal." But Republicans were more than just "conservative." As in the past, the pejorative adjectives were freely employed. Pat
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