Media Spun Employment Stories During 1996 and 2004 Elections

Media Spun Employment Stories During 1996 and 2004 Elections, Study Shows By Randy Hall CNSNews.com Editor October 14, 2004

(CNSNews.com) - Large national media outlets turned similar economic numbers into a positive story for then-President Bill Clinton in 1996 and negative news against President George W. Bush in 2004, according to a report released on Thursday by a group dedicated to challenging misconceptions in the media about free enterprise.

The Free Market Project's study, "One Economy, Two Spins," documents coverage of unemployment reports from May through September in 1996 and 2004 on ABC, NBC and CBS evening news broadcasts, the primary evening newscast on CNN and news articles in the Washington Post and the New York Times.

"Their coverage of jobs and the economy in these two election years demonstrates, perhaps more clearly than any other monitor, how the media choose sides in presidential elections," said Herman Cain, chairman of the Free Market Project, which is a division of the Media Research Center, the parent company of CNSNews.com.

"While both presidents could take credit for creating more jobs and lowering the unemployment rate, there were four times as many as favorable Clinton stories as there were for Bush," Cain added.

The report indicates that the media have consistently criticized the Bush record, including 13 straight months of positive job creation, more than 1.5 million new jobs in 2004 and an unemployment rate that dropped from 6.3 percent to 5.4 percent.

But eight years ago, the media regularly hailed the Clinton record of seven straight months of positive job creation, more than 2 million jobs in 1996 and an unemployment rate that dropped from 5.8 percent to 5.2 percent.

-- Clinton good, Bush bad. Stories about jobs under Clinton were positive 85 percent of the time, more than four times as often as they were for Bush despite similar economic data. When the Clinton unemployment rate hit 5.6 percent, reporters perceived it as "low," but they ignored an even better 5.4 percent rate under Bush.

-- Good news becomes bad news. Under Bush, reporters presented good economic data as bad news stories by minimizing positive achievements and emphasizing people who might be out of work or regions of the U.S. that were still "struggling." The opposite approach was taken under President Clinton. Then, reporters explained away a 0.2 percent rise in unemployment as minor or "not necessarily bad news."

-- Ignoring job impact from the 9/11 attacks. The media never mentioned the more than 1 million jobs that were lost due to the 9/11 attacks. Only six stories (13 percent) dealing with jobs during the study period mentioned terrorism or 9/11. No story detailed the enormous job losses as a result of the attacks.

-- CNN the best; CBS the worst. No network has been consistent in its coverage of Clinton and Bush, but CNN did the best of a bad field covering jobs and unemployment. The network was balanced in its coverage of the Clinton economy and did characterize one month under Bush as positive. CBS was the most unbalanced in its coverage.

CBS Evening News anchor Dan Rather particularly merits criticism, the report indicates.

Rather downplayed an unemployment increase under Clinton, and the reporter covering the story claimed it wasn't even bad news. After the five monthly unemployment reports in the summer of 2004, the network didn't find any good news to report. CBS didn't air any negative job creation and unemployment stories during the Clinton months.

"Any objective observer would conclude that the economic numbers in both years were positive, but the media have not been objective and have proven to be a disservice to the public when the public needs them most," Cain said.

This is why us BLOGGER's WIll put MSM out of thier jobs.

Pass this on to all of your email lists.

Last week, on Tuesday, our school had a field trip to see President Bush speak at the Farm Progress Show in Alleman, Iowa. It was even educational trip to learn about all the security we had to go through at the outdoor event.

It was a typical campaign stop for the President. He spoke for 45 minutes, much of his speech was about agriculture because there were many farmers there, along with thousands of other people.

A few days later we learned something very interesting about George W. Bush's visit to Iowa. Carson's former teacher had some friends there at the speech, whose son had been killed In Iraq as a Marine last April. The ouple's son was named Ben.

Ben's parents had blue tickets, which meant they would be standing outside on the ground with the rest of the crowd to hear the speech. At some point, their tickets were upgraded, and they were given tickets where they could be seated on the stage with the president.

About 45 minutes before President Bush came on stage, 2 secret service men asked them to leave the stage, and come inside a white trailer, behind
the stage. The parents were told to wait there, and also told that when the door of the trailer opened, they would want to stand up.

When the door opened, there was President Bush. He greeted them warmly, sat down with them at a table, and said, "Tell me all about Ben."

The parents told of how Ben knew the all the reasons why he was going into Iraq, and how he was glad to be doing what he, as a Marine, had been called to do. They told of how they had a complete peace about his death, and how they were absolutely certain he was in a much better place now.

After about 20 minutes of conversation, Ben's dad said, "We want to tell you, Mr. President, that my wife and I pray for you every day." Then President Bush said, "Let's pray right now." They gathered hands around the table. Ben's dad opened the prayer and the President closed.

This quiet encounter happened on a day when the President had major campaign stops in Tennessee and Pennsylvania, as well as Iowa. He also made an appearance at the Republican National Convention that evening by satellite. We were amazed to hear of this kind and heartfelt deed, which is
one of many that the President does without any reporters present, and a deed that will not likely ever hit the mainstream media. It was a lesson to my children, that a truly great leader is a humble person, one who will go out of his way seek out the hurting, and lastly, a man of prayer who loves and trusts God.

I hope that by sharing this, you will see a glimpse of this leader behind a closed door. I hope that we can also ponder, as Ben's parents did even in their sorrow, that God has a plan for our lives, and for our country.

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