-Caveat Lector- "I pledge Allegiance to the Flag of the United States of America and to the REPUBLIC for which it stands, one Nation under God,indivisible,with liberty and justice for all."
visit my web site at http://www.voicenet.com/~wbacon My ICQ# is 79071904 for a precise list of the powers of the Federal Government linkto: http://www.voicenet.com/~wbacon/Enumerated.html ---------- Forwarded message ---------- Date: Mon, 27 Jan 2003 11:58:42 -0700 From: Media Research Center <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Reply-To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: MRC Alert Special: Reporters Push Spin of Anti-Tax Cut Liberals ***Media Research Center CyberAlert Special*** 4pm EST, Monday January 27, 2003 Media Reality Check. "Reporters Push Spin of Anti-Tax Cut Liberals: Echoing Daschle, Reporters Assert Bush's Tax Cut Is Lousy Stimulus, Favors Wealthy & Worsens Deficit" Below is the text of a Media Reality Check, distributed by fax this afternoon, featuring a study by the MRC's Director of Research, Rich Noyes, of ABC, CBS and NBC evening show coverage of President Bush's tax cut proposal which should be topical again when he discusses it in his Tuesday night State of the Union address. A table in the middle of the faxed page conveyed the overwhelming slant in favor of liberal anti-tax cut arguments: Slant of Tax Cut News, Jan. 2-15 Liberal Conservative Arguments Arguments ABC 83% 17% CBS 74% 26% NBC 64% 36% Total 73% 27% Based on 102 statements from reporters and sources. That probably didn't line up too well in e-mail, so to see the version posted by the MRC's Mez Djouadi, which has a nice, colorful chart, go to: http://www.mediaresearch.org/realitycheck/2003/fax20030127.asp For the Adobe Acrobat PDF which matches the look of the fax: http://www.mediaresearch.org/realitycheck/2003/pdf/fax0127.pdf Now, the text of the January 27 Media Reality Check study by Rich Noyes: As they set the table for President Bush's State of the Union speech, network reporters have been busy as bees asserting that three liberal Democratic arguments against Bush's tax cut plan aren't just spin -- they're facts. A Media Research Center study of all 28 tax cut stories on the ABC, CBS and NBC evening newscasts from January 2 (when coverage of Bush's imminent plan began) through January 15 (after coverage had abated) determined that those liberal points received much more time than conservative counter-arguments -- and that journalists themselves often echoed the anti-tax cut talking points: > Liberals argued Bush's plan only comforts the rich. Viewers heard this point made by news sources 27 times and from reporters themselves another ten times. "The bigger your wallet, the bigger the benefit," CBS reporter Byron Pitts insisted on January 6 as he presented the tax cut as liberals wished, in terms of dollars saved, not the percentage tax reduction each family would receive. Emphasizing percentages shows the benefits would be larger for lower income families, but viewers heard just seven sources (all Republicans) challenge the liberal presentation, and no reporter ever did. That computes to a six-to-one liberal skew on this issue, hardly balance. It's not as if every expert agreed with Tom Daschle. The Tax Foundation used IRS figures to show how the current tax code punishes the rich -- the top 10 percent of Americans (those earning over $92,114) account for 46 percent of all income earned in the U.S., but pay 67.3 percent of income taxes. As Washington Post reporters Dana Milbank and Chris Jenkins noted January 10, "Treasury figures show the share of the tax burden borne by those earning more than $100,000 would rise from 72.4 percent to 73.3 percent" if Bush's plan was enacted. That's helping the rich? Two NBC reporters -- Campbell Brown and Lisa Myers -- did tell viewers (in general terms) that the rich pay a far higher share of current taxes, but ABC and CBS completely omitted even this basic fact. And no network reporter even hinted that the tax burden would fall even more heavily on the wealthy if Bush's plan became law. > Liberals argued that "costly" tax cuts will worsen the deficit. Viewers heard this liberal point made a dozen times -- three times from reporters, nine times from sources -- with only four responses, all from GOP sources, a three-to-one tilt in favor of the liberal argument. "White House officials [are]...confident that the President will get a lot of what he wants," ABC's Terry Moran ominously warned, "but there's a cost to that kind of success -- a ballooning deficit." But economist Steve Moore wrote in the February 10 National Review that the media are listening to the wrong experts: "In 1997, when the capital gains tax rate was cut, the crystal-ball gazers predicted a multibillion-dollar ?cost' to the Treasury; in fact, the receipts doubled in four years. These are precisely the same economic models that are now telling us the Bush tax cut will bankrupt America." > Liberals also argued it's a lousy stimulus plan. Overall, viewers heard 22 sources and three reporters denigrate the plan's ability to spur economic growth, vs. 16 comments by sources (mostly Bush himself) and one reporter who saw merit, a nearly three-to-two liberal skew. So who was the lone dissident? CNBC's Ron Insana, who told NBC's John Seigenthaler on January 4 that "there are some elements of this package that could, in fact, encourage business leaders to spend more on new plant and equipment [purchases], and that is what has been missing in this economic recovery." Overall, the MRC found ABC, CBS and NBC gave three times more airtime to liberal arguments against Bush's tax cut than the conservative arguments for it. Who still thinks the media are tilted to the right? END Reprint of Media Reality Check > Tonight on ABC's prime time drama The Practice, the show suggests another category of victims who can sue a company for a person's abuse of a legal product. The plot, as outlined on the abc.com Web site: "Eugene and Bobby represent a client who is suing an alcohol company for the untimely death of their son due to alcoholism." The Practice airs at 9pm EST/PST, 8pm CST/MST. -- Brent Baker >>> Support the MRC, an educational foundation dependent upon contributions which make CyberAlert possible, by providing a tax- deductible donation. Be sure to fill in "CyberAlert" in the field which asks: "What led you to become a member or donate today?" For the secure donations page: https://secure.mediaresearch.org/Donation/Order/MediaResearch25-27/mck-cgi/mrcdonate.asp To subscribe to CyberAlert, send a blank e-mail to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] To unsubscribe, use the link at the very bottom of this message. 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