A Media Research Center study found ABC, CBS and NBC's coverage of the Tea Party was marked by a tone of elitist condescension and dismissiveness. Given how those same networks gave fawning coverage and helpful publicity to far-less consequential liberal protest movements, their negative treatment of the Tea Party is a glaring double standard.
Surveys over the past 30 years have consistently found top journalists are much more liberal than the rest of America. At the same time, public opinion polls show Americans see the media as politically biased, inaccurate and an obstacle to solving society’s problems.
On August 1, longtime CNN international correspondent Christiane Amanpour will take over as the host of ABC's Washington, DC-based This Week. A quick perusal through the MRC's Notable Quotables archive confirms her standard liberal outlook on the world.
Journalists fret that the public does not appreciate Barack Obama's "many accomplishments," with NBC's Chuck Todd empathizing with Obama: "You've had an enormous amount of legislative victories....[but] it has not translated into political capital with the public. Honestly, are you frustrated by that?" Meanwhile, CNN's David Gergen likens ex-USDA official Shirley Sherrod to Nelson Mandela, even as an expose of an online journalist forum shows how one producer would react if she saw Rush Limbaugh dying: "Laugh loudly like a maniac and watch his eyes bug out." Those, plus 15 more quotes in this edition of Notable Quotables.
How aggressively have the TV networks have demonstrated their dislike of Arizona’s state law “cracking down on illegal immigrants,” allegedly pitting “neighbor against neighbor?” An MRC review of all 120 immigration stories on the ABC, CBS and NBC morning and evening news programs from April 23 to July 25 an astonishing ten-to-one tilt against the Arizona law.
