An in-depth study, analysis or review exploring the media
Special Reports
30th Apr, 2012 1:15pm
Executive SummaryEver since the United States and an international coalition
toppled Saddam Hussein’s dictatorship in the spring of 2003, the Iraq
war has dominated network newscasts. Since then, there’s been a lot of
undeniably bad news, as terrorists have launched a savage campaign to
thwart efforts to establish democracy in a major Arab state. But are
network reporters giving the public an inordinately gloomy portrait of
the situation, as some critics charge? Are the positive accomplishments…
26th Apr, 2012 4:13pm
Executive SummaryAfter more than two decades in which Dan Rather used his CBS Evening News anchor desk as a soapbox to punish conservatives and promote liberals — years in which the Evening News
tumbled from the undisputed ratings leader to a poor third place among
the nightly newscasts — CBS has elevated Katie Couric, the longtime
co-host of NBC’s Today, to sit as Rather’s permanent replacement.
In TV ads promoting Couric’s arrival, outgoing interim anchor Bob
Schieffer claimed: "She’…
26th Apr, 2012 3:05pm
Executive SummaryThe news media play an important role in popular culture by providing
publicity for the movie studios as films are readied for release. But
some movies are more favored by the news media than others, some for
their expected status as expensive but appealing blockbusters, and some
for their social commentary (for example, the film Brokeback Mountain). The DaVinci Code
was both: an expected blockbuster movie based on one of the most
publicized works of fiction in the…
24th Apr, 2012 12:52pm
Executive SummarySpurred by a passionate public outcry against the tide of illegal
immigration, on December 16, 2005, the House of Representatives passed a
bill to curb the flow of illegal aliens and give the federal
government more responsibility for detaining and deporting them. On
that night, ABC, CBS, and NBC didn’t cover the vote. But when left-wing
advocacy groups for illegal aliens organized large protests against
the House bill in the spring, as the Senate considered its own…
18th Apr, 2012 12:52pm
Executive SummaryIn the five years since al-Qaeda terrorists killed nearly 3,000
Americans on September 11, 2001, both international critics and
domestic groups such as the American Civil Liberties Union have
suggested that the American government’s tactics in the War on Terror
are as frightening as terrorism itself. These mostly liberal critics
portray the Bush administration as trampling on the civil rights of
ordinary Americans, abusing the human rights of captured terrorists and
acting…
17th Apr, 2012 10:49am
Executive SummaryJournalists who act offended by even the mildest suggestions that the
media elite have a liberal bias have in recent years become vocal
media critics themselves, accusing the Fox News Channel (FNC) of
skewing its news in a conservative direction. While all three cable
networks feature prime time personalities who are rarely shy about
making their opinions known, how does FNC really compare with CNN and
MSNBC when it comes to hard news reporting of a major story like…
17th Apr, 2012 8:39am
Executive SummaryAs the 2008 presidential campaign season gets underway, wide-open
primary races in both the Republican and Democratic parties are
competing for the media’s attention. So are the broadcast networks
covering both sides equally, or are they tilting the campaign playing
field in favor of liberal Democratic candidates?
To find out, Media Research Center analysts reviewed all 517 campaign segments on ABC’s Good Morning America, CBS’s The Early Show and NBC’s Today
from…
16th Apr, 2012 2:57pm
Executive SummaryWhen she founded her blog two years ago, Arianna Huffington made a pledge that was quoted by Newsweek:
“If you’re looking for the usual flame-throwing, name-calling, and
simplistic attack dog rhetoric....don’t bother coming to The Huffington
Post.” But an MRC review of the first two years of the HuffPost’s
content reveals that flame-throwing, name-calling, and hate speech
against conservatives are all on the Web site’s everyday menu.
True to everything pundits decry…
16th Apr, 2012 2:40pm
Executive SummaryThe Democratic takeover of Congress in 2007 quickly made one
definitive change in the national media infrastructure. For the first
time since Newt Gingrich became speaker in 1995, America's public
broadcasting system didn't have a skeptical majority party that might
sporadically ask questions about PBS using the taxpayer-funded airwaves
for overt liberal activism. In previous years with Democratic control
of Congress, PBS has played a more activist role within the…
11th Apr, 2012 11:39am
Executive Summary Barack Obama’s greatest struggle in the drawn-out Democratic
primary campaign was his relationship with his long-time minister Rev.
Jeremiah Wright and the Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago.
Rev. Wright’s noxious recorded sermons suggesting that America deserved
9/11 and that the federal government created AIDS as a tool of black
genocide were widely viewed on YouTube and discussed on talk radio and
cable TV. But what about the network news shows, the…