| NRA-ILA FAX ALERT |
| (800) 392-8683 |
Fax: (703) 267-3918 |
groots@nra.org |
| Vol. 7, No.1 |
11250 Waples Mill Road, Fairfax, VA 22030 |
1/7/2000 |
|
YET MORE CONFIRMATION OF ANTI-GUN MEDIA BIAS
|
"...ABC’s World News Tonight was the most biased in favor of gun
control, airing 43 anti-gun stories to only three pro-gun segments..." |
| -- Media Research Center (MRC) Report |
This week, the Media Research Center (MRC)
confirmed what the pro-gun
community already knew -- when it comes to firearm-related stories, the news
coverage on ABC, CBS, CNN, and NBC is decidedly anti-gun. The MRC study,
which
examined stories from July 1, 1997, to June 30, 1999, covered 653 morning and
evening news stories, and found that:
- Stories promoting gun control outnumbered those opposing gun control 357
to 36, with another 260 stories giving neutral coverage. The stories
advocating gun control outpaced those opposing by a ratio of nearly 10 to 1!
- On the evening news, nearly 60% (184) of the stories favored one side.
Of those stories taking a side, 89% (164) promoted the anti-gun position, while
only 11% (20) supported pro-gun views, a ratio of 8 to 1. The worst in this
category were ABC's World News Tonight (43 anti to 3 pro), and CNN's The World
Today (50 to 7).
- The morning news coverage was even worse in its bias. Of the 208 morning
segments that exhibited bias, 93% (193) promoted an anti-gun message, while six
percent (15) presented a pro-gun view, a ratio of 13 to 1. ABC's Good Morning
America ran 92 anti-gun segments, and only one pro-gun story.
- Anti-gun sound bites were used twice as often as pro-gun sound bites --
412 to 209.
- Morning programs with interview segments had more than twice as many
anti-gun guests as pro-gun -- 82 to 37.
- Pro-gun themes, like the decline in federal gun prosecutions under the
Clinton-Gore Administration, or the success of the "Project Exile" prosecution
model, received scant coverage, in the single digits, from the 653 stories
reviewed.
This is the second analysis of this subject conducted by the MRC. In 1994,
MRC released a study that examined evening news programs on ABC, CBS, CNN, and
NBC, that time focusing on the period of December 1, 1991, to November 30, 1993.
MRC researchers found that
- of 107 stories examined, 62% devoted substantially
more time to anti-gun arguments than pro-gun,
- that news commentators who
endorsed gun control outnumbered those opposed by nearly 2 to 1, and
- the
anti-gun bias was even more distinct when the story concerned the Brady bill,
expanding to 3 to 1 against the pro-gun view.
If you would like to see a full
copy of the MRC report, you will find links to it through the NRA-ILA's website,
at http://www.nraila.org.
You can also receive a reprint of Guns, Bias and the
Evening News, an article that closely examines MRC's 1994 study, by calling the
Grassroots Division at (800) 392-8683.
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This information is provided as a service of the National Rifle
Association Institute for Legislative Action, Fairfax, VA.
This and other information on the Second Amendment and the NRA is
available at: http://WWW.NRA.Org
|
