RESTON, VA – Today the Media
Research Center released
a new analysis [1] demonstrating that Utah’s local media leveled a deliberate, lopsided,
and relentlessly hostile attack on Sen. Mike Lee for his anti-ObamaCare stance
before, during, and after the government shutdown that began in October.
By a staggering margin of
33-to-1, editorial opinion at Utah’s two largest newspapers – the Salt Lake Tribune and the Deseret News – was harshly against the
strategy of linking ObamaCare’s fate to government funding. Coverage in the
news pages was scarcely more balanced, with 32 news stories tilting against the
conservatives’ strategy, vs. just three in favor and 13 conveying a balanced
debate.
MRC analysts reviewed all 116
news stories, editorials, and opinion columns in the two papers that talked
about Lee’s role in the shutdown. The study included all stories from September
17 through October 31 — a period beginning two weeks before the start of the
shutdown and ending two weeks after the shutdown concluded.
Media Research Center President
Brent Bozell reacts:
“Now that ObamaCare has crashed to earth in a ball of flame, the
Utah media that pounded Sen. Mike Lee relentlessly for his attempt to spare the
nation this pain owe him a sincere apology. Lee led a courageous fight in
Congress to defund ObamaCare in hopes of saving the American people from this
big government embarrassment.
“Rather than applauding the principled efforts of their own senator,
the Salt Lake Tribune and Deseret News parroted the national
liberal media’s shutdown hysteria. The wreckage of ObamaCare has vindicated
Lee’s efforts to tie the fate of Obama’s doomed health care law to government
funding. Even some Democrats are now calling for a delay.
“The honorable thing for the Utah media to do is apologize and
acknowledge that while they were too short-sighted to see the oncoming
disaster, Sen. Lee saw the forest for the trees.”
To schedule an interview with MRC President Brent Bozell or another MRC spokesperson, please contact Jeremy Little - jlittle@crcpublicrelations.com [2] (703)-683-5004