{"id":581,"date":"2007-08-30T10:58:17","date_gmt":"2007-08-30T17:58:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=581"},"modified":"2007-09-01T15:37:51","modified_gmt":"2007-09-01T22:37:51","slug":"media-research-centers-bogus-study-on-morning-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=581","title":{"rendered":"Media Research Center’s Bogus Study On Morning News"},"content":{"rendered":"

Conservative Brent Bozell’s disinformation unit, the Media Research Center, has released a study<\/a> that purports to show “How the ABC, CBS and NBC Morning Shows Are Promoting Democrats On the Road to the White House.”<\/em> The report claims that the network’s morning show scheduling was weighted in favor of Democrats and that this disparity represented a systemic bias:<\/p>\n

“The networks offered nearly twice as much coverage of the Democrats. More than half of all campaign segments (284, or 55%) focused on the Democratic contest, compared with just 152 (29%) devoted to the Republicans.”<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

However, there are a number of glaring holes in the study’s methodology.<\/p>\n

First:<\/strong> The MRC made no attempt to query network staffers to ascertain the reasons for an imbalance in presentation based on party affiliation, if any imbalance even occurred. Had they done so, they would have learned that Republicans have been far less cooperative in agreeing to be interviewed. Jim Murphy, executive producer of ABC’s “Good Morning America, told the Washington Post<\/a> that…<\/p>\n

“The candidates are responsible for how much time they generally get. They can get it by agreeing to interviews and agreeing to forums.”<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Second:<\/strong> The MRC appears to have counted newsworthy events such as the re-emergence of Elizabeth Edwards’ cancer, or the historic nature of the first viable black and female candidates, as partisan, political pandering.<\/p>\n

Third:<\/strong> Measuring the amount of time devoted to coverage says nothing about bias. You also need to evaluate the content of the coverage. The Project for Excellence in Journalism<\/a> released a study that measures the coverage of the presidential candidates. While there was more time spent on Democrats, don’t be too hasty drawing conclusions:<\/p>\n

“…nearly two-thirds of the election coverage (61%) was specifically about candidates vying for the Democratic nomination. This was nearly three times those that focused on Republican candidates (24%). Another 13% dealt with both parties. […] conservative talkers, Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, and Michael Savage were the most Democratic focused of all-75% of their time on Democrats and only 13% focused mainly on Republicans.”<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

So while there was more “coverage”<\/em> of Democrats, that extra focus really only translates into more time bashing them. It was conservative programs that were the most heavily weighted to Democratic candidates. The Media Research Council provided little substantive analysis of the content of the coverage, which makes their study almost useless for drawing conclusions of bias. But that certainly won’t stop them from muddying the waters with their deceitful brand of media criticism.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Conservative Brent Bozell’s disinformation unit, the Media Research Center, has released a study that purports to show “How the ABC, CBS and NBC Morning Shows Are Promoting Democrats On the Road to the White House.” The report claims that the network’s morning show scheduling was weighted in favor of Democrats and that this disparity represented […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1,8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-581","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general","category-propaganda"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4Ijg-9n","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":668,"url":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=668","url_meta":{"origin":581,"position":0},"title":"Falling For The Myth Of The Liberal Media","author":"Mark NC","date":"11\/19\/2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Tim Rutten is the media columnist for the Los Angeles Times. He is rare bright light in a dark media sky. I have written approvingly of his insight on several occasions. That's why I'm somewhat surprised at an article he published this weekend. Much of it accurately portrayed some of\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Big Media"","block_context":{"text":"Big Media","link":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?cat=12"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":41567,"url":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=41567","url_meta":{"origin":581,"position":1},"title":"Here’s a Solution for Trump’s Whining that ‘Something Strange is Going on at Fox News’","author":"Mark NC","date":"5\/21\/2019","format":false,"excerpt":"The single most predictable expression emanating from Donald Trump at any given moment is his relentless, childish whining. If he isn't whining about the Mueller investigation, he's whining about something a Democrat said, or the \"fake news,\" or Hillary Clinton's emails, or invading caravans of refugees at the border, or\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Election"","block_context":{"text":"Election","link":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?cat=152"},"img":{"alt_text":"Donald Trump, Fox News, Strange","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/..\/Pix\/FoxNews\/trump-foxnews-strange.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/..\/Pix\/FoxNews\/trump-foxnews-strange.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/..\/Pix\/FoxNews\/trump-foxnews-strange.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":9761,"url":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=9761","url_meta":{"origin":581,"position":2},"title":"Study Confirms That Republicans Lie More Than Democrats","author":"Mark NC","date":"5\/28\/2013","format":false,"excerpt":"\"Let their lying lips be silenced.\"According to a new study by the Center for Media and Public Affairs, Republicans were found to be significantly more dishonest in their public statements than Democrats. The CMPA examined 100 statements by members of both parties that were fact-checked by PolitiFact.com between January 20,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "General"","block_context":{"text":"General","link":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?cat=1"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":381,"url":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=381","url_meta":{"origin":581,"position":3},"title":"If It’s Sunday, It’s Still Conservative","author":"Mark NC","date":"3\/16\/2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Media Matters has published a report that documents the conservative bias of some of the most prominent political programs on television. Their extensive research shows that... \"During the 109th Congress (2005 and 2006), Republicans and conservatives held the advantage on every show, in every category measured. All four shows interviewed\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "General"","block_context":{"text":"General","link":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?cat=1"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":68434,"url":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=68434","url_meta":{"origin":581,"position":4},"title":"Trump FREAKS OUT Over a Democratic Plan to Add 12 Supreme Court Justices – That Doesn’t Exist","author":"Mark NC","date":"12\/5\/2025","format":false,"excerpt":"The frequency with which Donald Trump deliberately lies in order to keep his glassy-eyed flock of MAGA disciples both dumbed down and fired up is really pretty impressive. It's a machine gun style of disseminating disinformation that his fellow felonious advisor, Steve Bannon calls \"flooding the zone with shit.\" Click\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Election"","block_context":{"text":"Election","link":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?cat=152"},"img":{"alt_text":"Donald Trump","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/..\/Pix\/FoxNews\/trump-shout.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/..\/Pix\/FoxNews\/trump-shout.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/..\/Pix\/FoxNews\/trump-shout.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":769,"url":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=769","url_meta":{"origin":581,"position":5},"title":"Wall Street More Worried About Democrats Than Terror","author":"Mark NC","date":"1\/25\/2008","format":false,"excerpt":"If you need more proof that greedy, nationless, corporations and the parasitical appendages that analyze and enable them are detrimental to our country, look no further than this study of Wall Street's investment professionals. 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