MRC To Networks: "Report it Right" - Press Release - January 9, 2003

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
January 9, 2003

FOR MORE INFORMATION CONTACT:
Katie Wright at (703) 683-5004 ext. 132

Operation: ATM (Audit The Media) Challenges the Liberal Media

MRC To Networks: "Report it Right"

"The Media Are Distorting Reality by Claiming These Tax Cuts
Are Skewed in Favor of the Rich"

ALEXANDRIA, Va. --- The Media Research Center took network news anchors and correspondents to task today for their one-sided and biased coverage of President Bush's tax cut proposals. The MRC reviewed network news stories of Bush's new economic stimulus plan and found the same bias it did when it studied economic coverage this past summer.

"The networks are carrying the liberal line of attack against President Bush's tax cut by saying only the rich will benefit. What the networks don't tell viewers is that 96 percent of the taxes in this country are paid by people who make $27,682 or more," said Rich Noyes, MRC’s Research Director. "The media are distorting reality by classifying families earning $28,000 and above as ‘the rich’ and they are distorting reality by claiming these tax cuts are ‘skewed’ in favor of these ‘rich,’" he said.

The MRC's most recent analysis, Shocked By Tax Cuts for Taxpayers, showed that network reporters presented tax cuts as if they were just another government spending program. Balanced coverage would have equally stressed the fact that lower tax rates will promote more working, saving and investing — the kind of positive economic activity that will build a more prosperous nation.

"Reporters seem far more interested in advancing the liberal line of class warfare than actually telling the public the truth. Some of the additional facts they ignore include: the poor have already had their income taxes cut to zero, and that the Democrats' alternative plan only ‘cuts’ taxes for one year just to raise them again the next — a classic bait and switch. So much for Al Gore's criticism of a 'conservative' bias in the media," Noyes said.

Noyes noted the networks’ liberal tilt hasn’t changed since this past summer when the MRC analyzed economic coverage on ABC, CBS, CNN, FNC and NBC and published a special report on the anti-free market bias found throughout the stories. That report, A Summer of Skewed News, is available at http://archive.mrc.org/projects/atm/welcome.asp, as part of the MRC's ongoing "Operation: ATM" (Audit the Media).

To schedule an interview with an MRC spokesperson, contact Katie Wright at
(703) 683-5004, ext. 132.