Media Research Center Special Reports

2009

November 5
Better Off Red?
MRC Special Report Twenty years ago the Berlin Wall fell, tearing down the Iron Curtain that had sliced Europe in half since the end of World War II. Yet before, during and after those momentous events two decades ago, many in the liberal media continuously whitewashed the true nature of communism, or suggested free-market capitalism was somehow worse. The record compiled over 22 years by the Media Research Center demonstrates how some liberal journalists utterly failed to accurately depict communism as one of the worst evils of the 20th century, and often aimed their fire at those who were fighting communism rather than those who were perpetuating it.

October 14
A Rush To Ruin
Almost from the beginning of his nationally syndicated radio show in 1988, Rush Limbaugh has exposed the worst in journalists who are supposed to honor fairness and accuracy. Even today, with Obama and the Democrats numerically dominating Washington, the leftist media portray Limbaugh not as a commentator, but as a clear and present danger who must be curtailed.

May 15
Cheerleaders for the Revolution
The media applauded Barack Obama's first 100 days as President, but how well did journalists perform? A Media Research Center study of ABC, CBS and NBC coverage of Obama's first 100 days finds the networks lavished good press on every major initiative of the early Obama administration, including the massive stimulus package, all of the various bailouts, health care, stem cells, the environment and foreign policy. They never investigated whether Obama was leading America towards socialism and never even once labled his huge government agenda "liberal."

2008

August 20
Obama's Margin of Victory: The Media

The Democratic contest between Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton was the closest nomination in a generation. But Obama had a crucial advantage over his rivals this year: the support of the national media, especially the three broadcast networks. A new study by the Media Research Center documents how at every step of his national political career, network reporters showered the Illinois Senator with glowing media coverage, building him up as a political celebrity and exhibiting little interest in investigating his past associations or exploring the controversies that could have threatened his campaign.

August 8
Editing Reverend Wright’s Wrongs
Obama’s greatest struggle in the primaries was the controversy over his long-time minister Jeremiah Wright and his noxious recorded sermons suggesting America deserved 9/11 and AIDS was a U.S. government conspiracy. But ABC, CBS, and NBC's coverage protected the candidate by showing little of Wright's radical rhetoric and allowng liberal guests to dominate the discussion.

2007

November 1
No Fairness Doctrine for PBS
Democrats want to revive a federal "Fairness Doctrine" which would require private broadcasters to comply with notions of balancing out each station’s daily schedule of news, talk, and public-affairs programming. These same Democrats have been highly offended at the idea that anyone outside or inside taxpayer-funded broadcasting would monitor PBS content for fairness or balance. Just as 2007 has been a year of a "surge" of troops in Iraq, it’s also been a year of "surging" activism within PBS.

September 12
Huffington’s House of Horrors
When Arianna Huffington founded The Huffington Post in 2005, she opened her new Internet venture with a pledge, as quoted by Newsweek: “If you’re looking for the usual flame-throwing, name-calling, and simplistic attack dog rhetoric....don’t bother coming to The Huffington Post.” An MRC content analysis amply demonstrates that this celebrity-stuffed leftist blog specializes in hate speech and vicious, profane attacks against conservatives and an ignorant American public.

August 29
Rise and Shine on Democrats
The ABC, CBS and NBC morning news shows are dramatically tilting their presidential campaign coverage in favor of the Democrats, a new MRC study has found. The TV morning shows have offered nearly twice as much coverage to the Democrats (55% of all campaign segments) as Republicans (29%), and doled out nearly three times more interview airtime to Democrats than Republicans. Network reporters used a mostly liberal agenda when questioning candidates from both parties, a distinct favor to the

February 7
Fidel's Flatterers
For 47 years, Cuban dictator Fidel Castro has never allowed free elections and he has dealt brutally with Cubans who dare oppose him -- execution, imprisonment or exile. Yet liberals in the U.S. media remain enchanted with Castro and his communist revolution, treating the dictator more as a charming celebrity than an oppressive tyrant. The Media Research Center has compiled some of the choicest examples of the liberal media's infatuation with Castro from the last 20 years, many accompanied by video and audio clips.

2006

December 19
The Iraq War on Cable TV
A new MRC study comparing the Fox News Channel's coverage of the war in Iraq with that of CNN and MSNBC finds that Fox had the most balanced approach while its competitors emphasized a bad news agenda. CNN, in particular, went out of its way to emphasize alleged U.S. misdeeds like the killing of civilians in Haditha while providing less airtime to U.S. achievements like the killing of terrorist Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.

September 8
The Media vs. The War on Terror
In the five years since the 9/11 terrorist attacks that killed nearly 3,000 Americans, ABC, CBS and NBC have tilted their coverage of anti-terrorism efforts in favor of critics like the American Civil Liberties Union who claim the U.S. government has been too heavy-handed. In their coverage of the USA Patriot Act, the Guantanamo Bay prison for captured terrorists, or the NSA terrorist surveillance program, most broadcast news stories have portrayed our government's policies as dangerous, abusive or illegal.

August 29
Meet the Real Katie Couric
The image “//cdn.mrc.org/archive/stillshots/2006/Aug/CouricSmall.jpg” cannot be displayed, because it contains errors. On September 5, Katie Couric finally takes the helm of the CBS Evening News, a program tainted by decades of Dan Rather's liberal bias. But a review of Couric's 15 years as co-host of NBC's Today finds that she brings her own liberal baggage, and she seems unlikely to challenge the biased approach that has eroded the credibility of CBS News and the rest of the media elite.

August 28
Election In The Streets: How The Broadcast Networks Promote Illegal Immigration
A new MRC analysis of ABC, CBS and NBC evening news coverage finds the TV networks have skewed coverage of illegal immigration to celebrate illegal aliens and protests on their behalf, even as advocates of secure borders were portrayed as "harsh" and "hard line." This spin defies polls showing upwards of 90 percent of Americans view illegal immigration as a serious problem.

May 23
The Trashing of the Christ
The image “//cdn.mrc.org/archive/SpecialReports/2006/textbox/2006-05-17-nbc-Mattcannes.jpg” cannot be displayed, because it contains errors. Network coverage of religion stories is often scarce, but the church-bashing film The DaVinci Code was a publicity phenomenon, a bigger event than The Passion of the Christ in 2004. In their overt promotion of the film (and the fad) and its Christianity-curdling content, the networks (especially NBC) often displayed how 'intrigued' they were to imagine Jesus as just another man with wife and a child -- a much different approach than their hostility to the orthodox Christian vision of The Passion.

2005

October 14
TV’s Bad News Brigade
The image “//cdn.mrc.org/archive/stillshots/2005/bombing.jpg” cannot be displayed, because it contains errors. An exhaustive study of broadcast news coverage shows that ABC, CBS and NBC have been overwhelmingly negative in their portrayal of the Iraq war. Media Research Center analysts found that more than half of all of this year's war stories (61%) focused on pessimistic topics, four times as many as discussed the progress being made by U.S. forces or Iraqi leaders (just 15%). The networks made terrorist attacks the centerpiece of their Iraq coverage, while few stories focused on the bravery or accomplishments of U.S. soldiers.

June 23
Public Broadcasting: Your Taxes Fund Liberal Bias
The image “//cdn.mrc.org/archive/stillshots/2005/pbs050621.jpg” cannot be displayed, because it contains errors. PBS is currently airing taxpayer-funded TV commercials to lobby Congress against trimming the budget of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. How have PBS and NPR displayed a liberal tilt over the years? How have they dealt with challenges to their taxpayer funding? Take a look at MRC's archive of articles for examples

April 14
The Life of Pope John Paul: Shepherd of Souls or Antiquated Authoritarian?
Pope John Paul II: 1920 - 2005 The major media presented largely positive coverage of the death and funeral of Pope John Paul II. However, during his pontificate (1978-2005), the Pope usually received positive or negative news coverage dependent upon which side of the political fence he stood. On unchangeable Church teachings, for instance, the media frequently vilified the Pope. As the evidence shows, the media want to define holiness down and instruct the Pope on how to run the Catholic church.

March 28
Religion on TV News: Secular Orthodoxy Still Reigns
NBC's John Seigenthaler Have the network news divisions lost their recently increased taste for religious news topics? Religion coverage is down, but not as much as might have been expected. One major reason was Pope John Paul's two hospital trips in February. Unfortunately, once again, network TV coverage continues to explore religious issues through secular and political lenses, skeptical of religion's place in America. One example is the media's reaction to some Catholic bishops challenging John Kerry's suitability for the sacraments. TV reporters put the squeeze on church leaders, not Kerry.