Special Reports

An in-depth study, analysis or review exploring the media

8th Jun, 2005 8:14pm
Learning from an existing system Study parameters In the initial Social Security study, first published in April 2005, the Business & Media Institute examined the evening news programs on all five major networks - ABC, NBC, CBS, Fox News Channel and CNN - between Nov. 15, 2004, and March 15, 2005. This time frame covered the heart of President George W. Bush's proposal to reform Social Security from soon after his re-election through the launch of his '60 stops in 60 days' campaign…
27th Apr, 2005 8:10pm
See Full Study Social Security has been the most debated domestic issue of George W. Bush’s second term. Baby boomers begin retiring as early as 2008, and the nation’s retirement system faces an income shortfall beginning as early as 2017, according to the Social Security Administration. President Bush has called for personal accounts that would restructure the system to combat this looming problem. Social Security coverage on the five major networks has been overwhelmingly against personal…
27th Apr, 2005 8:06pm
See Executive Summary In the Social Security reform debate, liberals have promised 'guaranteed' tax-funded benefits. Conservatives have warned that the outdated retirement program is nearing guaranteed bankruptcy. But the only real guarantee in this debate is that network news has been biased toward the liberal viewpoint. A new study from the Media Research Center's Business & Media Institute found Social Security coverage on the five major networks biased toward the left by a margin…
1st Apr, 2005 7:58pm
See Full Study Accounting scandals have become bread-and-butter stories for journalists. But one of the biggest accounting debacles in recent history has gone virtually unnoticed by the TV news. Fannie Mae, the government-sponsored mortgage association, has accounting errors of about $11 billion. That’s more than 19 times larger than Enron’s $567 million error. Yet a Justice Department inquiry, SEC investigation, and Office of Federal Housing Enterprise complaint were not enough to get the…
1st Apr, 2005 7:54pm
See Executive Summary It's a familiar story. An enormous company reveals its 'accounting problems.' The problems are found to be far worse than anyone realized. The CEO is forced to resign. Other high-ranking executives follow. The stock price begins to drop. Billions of dollars might be lost. The politically savvy CEO even has direct connections to a presidential administration. If the word 'Enron' has formed in your mind, you'd be close, but wrong. Welcome to Fannie Mae, the nation's…
13th Dec, 2004 10:13pm
See Full Study Diet and obesity continue to weigh heavily on the minds of Americans. Those concerns have carried over to the news media, but the coverage takes on a strong anti-business slant, as if businesses and advertisers were responsible for obesity. Earlier this year, the MRC’s Business & Media Institute released a study showing a significant anti-corporate trend in the major media’s food reporting. Journalists are providing more coverage of individual responsibility as a cause of…
13th Dec, 2004 9:58pm
See Executive Summary Obesity has become one of the most commonplace health issues covered by the mainstream media. This summer, networks and newspapers were full of stories on fad diets, recipes and overweight adults trying to lose weight, Time magazine and ABC News even sponsored a national “Summit on Obesity” in early June to much fanfare, but questionable journalistic result.      Through it all, one thing remained clear: The media presented an anti-business viewpoint in their coverage of…
8th Nov, 2004 9:51pm
See Full Study For nearly four years, network news programs have presented a skewed view of global warming and the Kyoto treaty that liberal environmentalists claim would cure it. Those same newscasts have all-but ignored the negative economic consequences that ratifying Kyoto would have on the U.S. The network coverage also largely ignored scientific evidence questioning global warming theory, while touting dramatic claims of liberal environmental activists.      To document how network news…
8th Nov, 2004 9:48pm
See Executive Summary Deadly droughts, polar caps melting, forest fires, sweltering heat. Global warming hasn’t hit the news every day, but when it has, it has done so with a bang. Network news programs have parroted almost any claim to paint a horrifying picture of climate change and focus on the “impending doom” of global warming.     One thing has become clear: what is “impending” is the Kyoto Protocol, a treaty designed to cut emissions that allegedly contribute to global warming. In…
14th Oct, 2004 8:36pm
See Full Study The media gave President Bush consistently negative press about perceived poor job creation and unemployment in the summer of 2004 but their reports were overwhelmingly positive when President Clinton ran for reelection in the summer of 1996 under similar economic circumstances. The media have consistently criticized the Bush record, minimizing 13 straight months of positive job creation, more than 1.5 million new jobs in 2004 and an unemployment rate that dropped from 6.3…