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 January 18, 2006 Media Bias What? The media is supposed to be unbiased. Just tell us what happened. Let us decide what it means. At least that's the way it's supposed to go. We all know that's not even close to reality. Not too long ago a University of Michigan scholar, Brian Patrick, spent a year looking into how the NRA and their lobbying group is written about in several prestigious newspapers: The New York Times, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times and Christian Science Monitor. He looked into nearly 1500 published articles, columns, editorials, and letters and what he found was surprising… but not to you and I. Patrick found that the following lobbying groups are typically labeled as followed: ACLU: Labeled "civil liberties group," "abortion rights group," or "leading liberal champion." NAACP: Labeled "national civil rights group," venerable civil rights organization," or "the nation's oldest and largest civil rights organization." HCI (Handgun Control, Inc.): Labeled as a "citizen's lobby," "non-profit organization," or "public interest group." NRA: Labeled as some variant of "lobby" or "special interest group" including "semiautomatic caucus," "lobbying juggernaut," "powerful gun lobby," "radical gun lobby," "the classic Washington superlobby," "arrogant lobby," " the gun lobby consisting of everything from neo-Nazis to nature-loving hunters," "most feared lobby," "the Beltway's loudest lobby," and "a rich and paranoid organization." Patrick also found that in more than 27 percent of stories about a liberal lobby group, such as the NAACP, ACLU, or HCI, also included photos of the group's officials and events. Only 7 percent of stories about the NRA had such accompanying photos. When HCI officials are quoted they are identified by their proper title 64 percent of the time; NAACP 73 percent. When NRA officials are quoted in an article they are properly identified only 20 percent of the time. Sarah Brady would then be identified as the President of Handgun Control, Inc., while Wayne LaPierre would be identified as a NRA lobbyist instead of his proper title as executive vice president. When the AARP provides information it is described as "reported," "indicated," "concludes," "documents." When the NAACP provides information they have "spoken out," " vowed," "declared," or "announced." But, in contrast, when the NRA provides information the writers use verbs that imply a lack of certainty: "claims," "asserts," "likes to portray," "contended," and "alleges." "These data support a conclusion of a systematic marginalization of the NRA," Patrick says. And it's not just in the print media, either. A study done by Media Research Center found that in the 24 months ending June 1999, morning and nighttime news shows aired 653 stories about gun policy in some manner. Of those, 393 of them were clearly bent towards advocacy and almost 91 percent had an anti-gun point of view. Specifically, ABC's Good Morning America had 93 segments on gun policy. 92 of the 93 had a pro-gun control bias. CNN's The World Today had 98 spots urging gun restrictions while only allowing 40 spots opposing gun restrictions. The irrational demonizing of guns by the media makes no sense since typically one out of every two households in America have a gun in them. Maybe the public will figure this out and stop tuning in to such biased networks. 
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