Posted on 08/03/2007 8:45:03 AM PDT by Blackyce
Stephen J. Farnsworth
Stuart Soroka
Lori Young
Surveys show considerable friction between U.S. President George Bush and Canadians over differences involving the occupation of Iraq, the treatment of prisoners at Abu Ghraib, and tightening security along the U.S.-Canada border, but don't blame Canada's television news for the disagreements.
In fact, both the U.S. government and Bush may have been treated more positively on Canadian television news over the past three years than on NBC, home to the top-rated U.S. evening news program.
The new evidence, from a two-nation, 16,220 news story content analysis conducted by the Media Observatory at McGill University, should put to rest claims on both sides of the border that Canadian television news offers distinctly anti-American fare.
In our study of all evening news reports that mentioned the U.S. government or President Bush between January 2004 and December 2006, the CBC and CTV news reports were less negative than those on NBC more than 90 per cent of the time (33 of 36 months).
For news stories that reported on Bush specifically, the Canadian reports were more favourable than those on NBC nearly two-thirds of the time (22 of 36 months).
The gentler treatment of Bush on Canadian television is particularly notable given that NBC was more positive in its treatment of Bush than rivals ABC and CBS during three key periods: after the 2001 terrorist attacks, the combat phase of the 2003 Iraq war and the first six months of the occupation of Iraq.
Neither the CBC nor CTV can fairly be called the Fox News of the North – Canadian news coverage of Bush was clearly more negative than positive.
But NBC's reporting was even more critical during the three-year period, which included prisoner abuse controversies, concerns over whether Iran and North Korea were developing nuclear weapons, and intense debates over Iraqi policies during both the 2004 and 2006 elections.
If ever there were a time when an international media outlet would be particularly critical of the U.S., it would have been the past three years. But the pattern of generally more positive coverage of the U.S. government from Canada holds whether the topic is U.S. actions involving Iraq, Afghanistan, Mexico, Britain or Pakistan, or whether the topic is foreign affairs, health, crime or politics.
Why are Canadian media not more negative?
Canadian journalists may be at a disadvantage. Executive branch media management strategies are designed to limit the range of action of television journalists, who face great pressure to use the "picture of the day" provided by the administration to shape ongoing news coverage. These techniques may work better on international reporters, who struggle to get their phone calls returned. Opposing party senators and congressmen, the most important voices for anti-presidential sound bites, are much more likely to grant television interviews to U.S.-based media.
Results may also be driven by the fact that our NBC sample includes all news stories, whereas the Canadian sample is comprised of only those articles relating to Bush and/or the U.S.
We might expect domestic coverage (including crime, along with all the minor domestic difficulties and scandals) to be more negative than foreign coverage, regardless of the countries involved.
It is important, then, that the modest tonal differences seen between U.S. and Canadian news coverage of the U.S. largely disappear when we examine only those stories that discuss President Bush. Even then, however, Canadian media are not clearly more negative, even in stories about Bush.
These findings are, we think, rather surprising. All in all, they suggest that Bush and the rest of the U.S. government would be regarded at least no worse, and perhaps even better, if U.S. citizens had spent the past three years watching The National and CTV News with Lloyd Robertson rather than NBC Nightly News.
A complete report of this study is available in the current issue of Policy Options, available at www.irpp.org.
Pierre Trudeau must be rolling over in his grave.
Surprising.
Wow.
NBC is left of Canada.
“Interesting”
Not really.
The MSM is the marketing arm of the DNC. Therefor ad copy written by “reporters” for the DNC and delivered by spokespersons fraudulently presenting themselves as journalists as “news” necessarily is unfavorable to the clients (DNC) competitors (Republicans).
The DNC is not a CTV client, Canada just has an ingrained dislike for the US and there socialists leaders promote Democrats due to similar politics.
I agree. Our media shills for the Democratic Party, not “liberalism”
Canadaian media is probably more devoted to liberal ideology, and in many instances, Bush has been a liberal’s best friend.
I don’t think President Bush watches TV (except sports maybe).
Got better things to do with his time.
Most of the Canadians I have talked to like the United States. I was in Toronto several times last summer, wore my patriotic tee shirts, I got no dirty looks or anything.
but there media is horrible. The whole 2 weeks I was there. I could tell the Canadian Media was very much against Stephen Harper.
the first two weeks I was there. correct that
NO, no, boys! The president wants INFORMATION when he watches the TV news; he doesn’t need he latest update on sick and dying children, charity events for cancer or the latest poop on the issuing of pistols to the uniformed tax collectors who run the canadian border.
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