MediaWatch: May 1995
Table of Contents:
- MediaWatch: May 1995
- Network News Dominated by Arguements and Soundbites Against the GOP Contract
- NewsBites: Brownout
- Revolving Door: Burke's Back
- McVeigh: Newt's Protege?
- Hosts Blamed For Bombing
- Welfare Reform Ripoff
- Today Sounds Like Talk Radio?
- Janet Cooke Award: Sticking Up for Regulatory Overkill
Network News Dominated by Arguements and Soundbites Against the GOP Contract
Fighting the First One Hundred Days
The election of the first Republican Congress in over 40 years gave the media an opportunity to cover a wide new range of issues in the Contract With America. With the House Republicans promising votes on all ten provisions in the first 100 days, what kind of treatment did the Contract receive?
To learn if the networks gave equal coverage to the arguments of both sides, MediaWatch analysts reviewed all policy stories on the Contract which aired on ABC's World News Tonight, CBS Evening News, NBC Nightly News, and CNN's World News from January 1 to April 8. (Policy stories addressed a specific provision in the Contract, or the likely effects of passage. Stories updating a bill's progress or focusing on personalities were excluded.)
Soundbites: In 229 total policy stories, talking heads opposing the Contract outnumbered supporters by 442-330, or 58 to 42 percent.The count obscured how the networks especially cheered for pet programs like Clinton's AmeriCorps and the National Endowment for the Arts.
Arguments: Analysts counted the number of arguments made for or against the Contract in each story, and the number of talking heads in support or opposition. Stories with a disparity greater than 1.5 to 1 in the arguments or talking heads of one side were categorized as pro- or anti-Contract. Stories within the ratio were classified as neutral.
In the most controversial items of the Contract (the Balanced Budget Amendment and spending cuts; welfare reform; tax cuts; the crime bill; regulatory and legal reform), stories dominated by opponents and their arguments outnumbered those tilted in favor by 127 (56 percent) to 21 (9 percent), and 81 were neutral. (Since almost all stories on term limits focused on the legislative battle, they were classified based on who was blamed for its failure.)
Balanced Budget: The media derided Republican efforts to pass a Balanced Budget Amendment, and attacked efforts to reduce spending. Stories asserting a balanced budget would hurt the poor or defending government spending totaled 34, while each network aired just one story on the need to downsize government. In the face of the election results, only two stories focused mainly on taxpayer demands for smaller government. ABC was the most one-sided, with 14 stories defending spending or displaying "victims" of cuts, to one positive look at the GOP Medicare reform plan.
A typical defense of spending came from Carl Rochelle on the March 18 CNN World News. He examined a Great Society program eliminated by Republicans, claiming the Job Corps "helped hundreds of thousands of people," and aired three supporters of the program, including Labor Secretary Reich and inner city participants, to one critic.
CBS defended the NEA on March 31, with Connie Chung noting some "call it a taxpayer subsidy for wacky or tacky artists who play to a cultural elite. Is that really where the money goes?" John Blackstone visited Louisiana and concluded: "While the budget cutters sharpen their ax, the folks at the Piney Woods Opry say the value of this music can't be measures in dollars. It can only be felt."
Welfare Reform: Coverage tilted heavily to the left, with 45 of 68 stories (66 percent) devoted to liberal arguments. Conservative policies merited just 10 reports (15 percent), and 19 percent were neutral. Reports on school lunch "cuts" outnumbered reports covering reforms in states like Massachusetts, Wisconsin, Michigan and New Jersey by 18 to 5. Amazingly, in 68 stories, welfare fraud was covered once, on a February 10 ABC report by Ron Claiborne.
The plan to fold food programs into block grants to the states drew fire. Of 17 school lunch stories, reporters in 15 claimed Republicans would "cut" lunches. On March 21, Bob Schieffer of CBS claimed: "Republicans want to wipe out some heretofore untouchable federal programs; such things as aid to poor single mothers with children, school lunch programs, foster care, and aid to disabled children."
Only NBC's Joe Johns mentioned Republicans were slowing the lunch program's growth rate from 5.3 percent to 4.5 percent. CNN's Eugenia Halsey was the only one to note that any student is eligible, not just the poor. Even so, she concluded February 23: "The GOP must battle the perception that the Contract with America is a contract against children."
Tax Cuts: Both the $500 per child tax credit and the capital gains tax cut were scorned: 18 stories detailed liberal arguments that tax cuts went to the wealthy or were too expensive. Just three highlighted public demand for tax cuts. Talking heads opposing tax cuts prevailed over tax cut supporters by a 3-2 margin, 58-39. Only CBS's Ray Brady, on April 4, explained how high capital gains taxes inhibited investment by ordinary people.
Regulatory Reform: Sixteen stories dealt with legislation to overhaul regulations and reduce government takings. Eight stories cited intrusive regulations as evidence for reform, but 14 stories (88 percent) warned that loosening regulations would harm the environment. Soundbites from environmentalists outnumbered reformers by 23-16 (59 to 41 percent).
Legal Reform: In nine stories on attempts to reduce liability suits, eight were dominated by the liberal agenda. Talking heads opposed reform by a more than 2-to-1 ratio (17-8). ABC's Tim O'Brien declared on March 7: "According to the National Center for State Courts, there is no litigation explosion." O'Brien passed on that after reform,"most consumer groups insist only the wealthy could sue."
Crime Bill: In rewriting the Clinton crime bill, reporters favored administration claims. Five stories cited the loss of Clinton's "prevention" programs, but only one story (by ABC's John Cochran) noted GOP complaints about waste in such programs. Just as in the 1994 debate, in 13 stories the net- works uncritically passed along the Democrats claim of putting 100,000 cops on the street, 57 percent of crime bill stories. Soundbites were skewed towards the liberal agenda, with 30 Contract supporters (39 percent) against 46 opponents (61 percent).
Term Limits: Even though 82 percent of Republicans voted for a term-limits constitutional amendment, versus 19 percent of Democrats, in 12 stories reporters blamed Republicans for its loss, Democrats were blamed six times. Just three of 17 stories (18 percent) noted the vote was the first ever held on term limits in the House.
Newt Gingrich's book deal received 27 evening news stories in the six weeks ending February 1, more than they devoted to regulatory reform, legal reform, or term limits in 100 days. The networks, which claim to favor change, defended the existing welfare state, and attacked the document which confronted the status quo.
