Network News Coverage of the "Government Shut-Down")

Provided by the Media Research Center:

For millions of Americans, big political contests such as presidential elections and pivotal congressional hearings are still largely witnessed through the lens of ABC’s, CBS’s and NBC’s evening newscasts. According to Nielsen Research, more than 20 million viewers tuned in over the past two weeks for the Big Three’s take on the shutdown drama.

What those viewers heard, according to a just-completed Media Research Center study, was a version of the shutdown story that could easily have emanated from Barack Obama’s own White House.

The broadcast networks invariably blamed Republicans for the impasse; spotlighted dozens of examples of how Americans were being victimized; and ran scores of soundbites from furloughed federal workers and others harmed by the shutdown — even as they ignored examples of how the Obama administration and Senate Democrats were working to make the shutdown as painful as possible.

MRC analysts reviewed each broadcast network evening newscast from the first day of the shutdown (October 1) through the last night before a deal was announced (October 15). Of the 124 full stories and brief items about the shutdown or the pending debt ceiling deadline, 41 blamed Republicans or conservatives for the impasse, 17 blamed both sides, and none specifically blamed Democrats.

* ONE... MORE... TIME...

...and none specifically blamed Democrats.

This is an acceleration of the same trend the MRC documented during the two weeks prior to the actual start of the shutdown (September 17 through September 30), when those same broadcasts ran 21 stories blaming Republicans, four blaming both sides, and none blaming Democrats.

(*JUST SHAKING MY HEAD*)

In 15 days, the networks ran soundbites from 23 federal workers (most of them furloughed), 47 individuals whose lives had been hurt by the shutdown, and 56 ordinary citizens condemning the shutdown. While most of the negative opinion was directed at Washington in general, 17 singled out Republicans for blame, vs. only three castigating Democrats, a nearly six-to-one ratio.

* WOW... I'M ACTUALLY SURPRISED THE THREE WHO CASTIGATED THE DEMOCRATS WERE GIVEN AIR-TIME!

During the first 15 days of October, the network evening newscasts highlighted 127 examples of ways the shutdown was hurting Americans — from closed national parks and furloughed workers, to children denied medical treatment for life-threatening illnesses and the suspension of death benefits for the families of U.S. soldiers and Marines killed in Afghanistan. The drumbeat of negative stories cast the shutdown (and, by implication, those responsible) as downright scandalous. NBC’s Brian Williams described the consequences as nearly criminal on the October 8 Nightly News: “All kinds of people are getting cheated out of salaries, benefits, medical treatment.”

* AND SUCH OPINING HAS IT'S PLACE. I'M CERTAINLY NOT SAYING THAT THE EFFECTS OF THE SHUT-DOWN SHOULDN'T HAVE BEEN HIGHLIGHTED. HOWEVER... (READ ON...)

Virtually absent from the coverage was any questioning of the Obama administration's tactics in implementing the shutdown.

* NOR WAS THERE MUCH "CONTEXT" WITHIN THE REPORTING... FOR EXAMPLE HOW OFTEN DID YOU HEAR STORIES ABOUT THE "PAIN" CAUSED BY THE SHUT-DOWN WITHOUT ANY CONTEXT IN TERMS OF THE BROADER ISSUE OF GOVERNMENT SPENDING... GOVERNMENT OVERSPENDING... GOVERNMENT GROWTH... GOVERNMENT DEBT GROWTH... ONGOING GOVERNMENT DEFICITS...???

Eight stories talked about the barricading of the open-air World War II Memorial in Washington, D.C., a site that is normally accessible 24 hours a day. None of the networks questioned why that particular memorial needed to be barricaded.

* BECAUSE QUESTIONING OBAMA POLICIES WOULD BE... QUESTIONING O*B*A*M*A POLICIES! IN OTHER WORDS, THE MEDIA FELT IT'S JOB WAS TO WORK FOR OBAMA... TO SERVE AS A MARKETEER OF THE DEMOCRATIC POSITION AND NOT A NEUTRAL OBSERVER AND REPORTER OF EVENTS IN CONTEXT!

Similarly, CBS anchor Scott Pelley opened the October 2 Evening News by saying “no one was more lonely on this second day of the partial government shutdown than the President — President Lincoln. His memorial, one of the many national park sites, forced to close.”

* BUT THAT'S THE THING... IT WASN'T "FORCED" TO CLOSE... OBAMA'S EXECUTIVE BRANCH CHOSE TO CLOSE IT! AND, FOLKS... COM'ON... THIS "CHOOSING" WAS TACTICAL... AND STRATEGIC; IT WAS PART OF OBAMA'S "WAR" AGAINST THE REPUBLICAN CONGRESS AND THE UNNECESSARY PAIN OF TOURISTS AND JUST PLAIN FOLKS WAS COLLATERAL DAMAGE OBAMA DELIBERATELY CAUSED SO AS TO PRESSURE REPUBLICANS IN CONGRESS!

The steps of the Lincoln Memorial were not off-limits to visitors during the Clinton-era shutdowns, yet none of the networks challenged the Obama administration’s decision to ban the public this year.

(*PURSED LIPS*)

All three networks emphasized the tragedy of how furloughs at the National Institutes of Health meant patients with potentially fatal illnesses — including children — would not be admitted to new trials. On October 11, for example, ABC’s Jim Avila highlighted for World News viewers the heart-breaking story of an eight-year-old leukemia victim, Maddie Major, including a soundbite from the girl’s mother, Robin: “It’s the most devastating thing in the world to know that there could potentially be a cure for her, but because of a stalemate in the government, we can’t research those options. It’s mind-blowing.” Avila then theatrically confronted a Republican congressman, Steve Womack, explaining: “He’s on the House committee that oversees the NIH budget and he voted for the shutdown.”

Of course, Republicans never voted “for” a shutdown, but passed a series of bills ensuring continued funding, but with amendments the Democratic Senate rejected.

Avila did not similarly put a Democratic Senator on the spot for the failure to fund NIH.

* ONE MORE TIME...

Avila did not similarly put a Democratic Senator on the spot for the failure to fund NIH.

* AND THAT'S THE PROBLEM! THE DOUBLE STANDARD! THE TAKING OF PARTISAN SIDES!

Earlier, on October 3, NBC correspondent Tom Costello showcased how “the mother of an 18-month-old has been told her rare sarcoma could be terminal. But without funding, any new NIH clinical drug trials are on hold.” NBC Nightly News ran three additional stories mentioning the deferral of NIH trials and the gravely-ill patients affected, but never once told viewers the House had voted on October 2 to restore that funding, only to be rebuffed by Senate Democrats.

* AGAIN... (READ ON!)

... but never once told viewers the House had voted on October 2 to restore that funding, only to be rebuffed by Senate Democrats.

Indeed, only the CBS Evening News bothered to mention — just once — Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid’s dismissive comment about restoring funding to enable life-saving medicine to resume. On October 2, correspondent Nancy Cordes told anchor Scott Pelley, “Reid was asked if he’d be open to funding cancer research for kids only, and his response was, ‘Why would I do that?’”

For its part, the CBS Evening News on October 7 devoted an entire story to the plight of the “thousands who work for Head Start early education programs” and the families they serve. Correspondent Michelle Miller talked to Danielle Smith, who works for the program in Bridgeport, Connecticut: “I had parents who told me ‘I’m going to lose my job. If I don’t have child care, I can’t go to work.’ They were asking for help and we said — I couldn’t help them.” As the story ended, Pelley reflected: “Real consequences, for real people.”

* AND, AGAIN... FINE... A BIT HEAVY-HANDED, BUT IN BOUNDS. BUT WHERE'S THE CONTEXT? WHERE'S THE REPORTING OF THE REALITY THAT GOVERNMENT SPENDING IS COMPLETELY OUT OF CONTROL? WHERE'S THE COMPARISONS TO RESPONSIBLE - vs. IRRESPONSIBLE - FAMILY OR EVEN BUSINESS ECONOMICS? NO REMINDERS OF THE DEBT... THE DEFICITS WITHOUT END... THE AMOUNT PAID IN INTEREST ALONE EACH YEAR... THE AMOUNT OF INTEREST WHICH WILL BE PAID IN YEARS TO COME IF (WHEN) INTEREST RATES GO UP?

The next day, the House passed a targeted funding bill that would have immediately restored Head Start. But Pelley’s Evening News never brought that important follow-up to viewers.

(*SNORT*)

If the interruption of Head Start’s services was deemed nationally important news, how come the attempt to resume those services was not treated as equally important?

(*PURSED LIPS*)

As the shutdown neared its end, the networks’ polls found the American public more critical of the GOP than either Democrats or the White House.

* WOW... I WONDER WHY...?

(*SMIRK*)

While some blame can perhaps be assigned to Republicans’ lack of a unified conservative message, the incessant drumbeat of hostile, and slanted, media coverage surely took its toll as well.