REPORT: Fox News' town hall coverage amplifies opponents of health care reform, ignores supporters
A Media Matters for America review found that, during the week of August 24, Fox News aired 22 clips of town hall meeting attendees expressing an opinion or asking a question that opposed progressive health care reform efforts but aired zero clips of town hall attendees expressing an opinion or asking a question supporting reform.
Media offer distorted view of town hall meetings
Dionne: Media "went out of their way to cover the noise" at town halls, highlighted "fringe right-wing view." Washington Post columnist E.J. Dionne wrote: "There is an overwhelming case that the electronic media went out of their way to cover the noise and ignored the calmer (and from television's point of view 'boring') encounters between elected representatives and their constituents. It's also clear that the anger that got so much attention largely reflects a fringe right-wing view opposed to all sorts of government programs most Americans support." [The Washington Post, 9/03/09]
Kurtz: "[A]nger at town-hall meetings ... became an endless loop on television." Washington Post media critic Howard Kurtz wrote: "The eruption of anger at town-hall meetings on health care, while real and palpable, became an endless loop on television. The louder the voices, the fiercer the confrontation, the more it became video wallpaper, obscuring the substantive arguments in favor of what producers love most: conflict." Kurtz added: "Twenty members of Congress might have held calm and collected town meetings on any given day, but only the one with raucous exchanges would make it on the air." [The Washington Post, 8/24/09]
Fox News only interested in covering "yelling" and "contentious questions." As Kurtz reported: "In fact, after the president convened a low-key town hall in New Hampshire, press secretary Robert Gibbs told reporters: 'I think some of you were disappointed yesterday that the president didn't get yelled at.' There was a grain of truth in that. As Fox broke away from the meeting, anchor Trace Gallagher said, 'Any contentious questions, anybody yelling, we'll bring it to you.' " [The Washington Post, 8/24/09]
On Fox News, anti-reform voices drown out pro-reform ones 22-0
Fox News aired 22 clips of attendees opposed to reform, none of supporters. Fox News aired 22 clips in which town hall attendees expressed an opinion against health care reform, but no clips of attendees expressing support. CNN aired three clips of attendees expressing support and five voicing opposition to reform; MSNBC aired one clip against and none in support:
Fox News features extreme anti-reform rhetoric, ignores substantive, pro-reform questions from town halls
Incendiary town hall rhetoric highlighted by Fox. During the week, Fox News provided a platform for incendiary statements about progressive reform efforts. For example, on five separate occasions, Fox aired a clip of an attendee who said at an August 25 town hall for Sen. John McCain: "No compromises! Senator, nuke it now." Other examples of comments by anti-reform attendees that aired on Fox include:
- "If Nancy Pelosi wants to find a swastika, maybe the first place she should look is the sleeve of her own arm." [Fox & Friends, August 24 coverage of Rep. Brian Baird's (D-WA) August 18 town hall]
- "Have you ever, or any of your family members, lived under so-called socialized medicine, as I call it? I have, and I've had relatives living on it. And trust me, it ain't working." [On the Record with Greta Van Susteren, August 25 coverage of Rep. Jim Moran (D-VA) August 25 town hall]
- "I'd like to know why illegal aliens -- illegal -- not members of this country, don't belong here, are gonna be insured under this. .... I have taken the time to look at certain provisions of the bill on the Internet. I can quote the -- what is it? -- the section and the page, and it definitely says that they will be insured. They don't even belong here, and I'm paying for it." [America's Newsroom, August 28 coverage of Sen. Mary Landrieu's (D-LA) August 27 town hall]
- "[T]here will be rationing health care. ... [A]nd, in addition, the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation, through, with the help of pharmaceutical companies, do a lot of research and they have made great strides in helping people like Maya live normal, productive, longer lives. I'm afraid when this government option is passed, Maya's life will not be worth anything to the government." [America's Newsroom, August 28 coverage of McCain's August 26 town hall]
Substantive, pro-reform questions passed over. Despite providing a platform for incendiary anti-reform claims, Fox News repeatedly passed over substantive and pro-reform questions and comments from the town hall meetings that they covered. While those questions could be heard and read in unedited footage of the town halls online or in local coverage of the events, they were not aired on Fox -- even when the network featured footage critical of reform from the same meetings. Examples of questions from pro-reform attendees that Fox News didn't cover include:
- "Could you please help us understand why this single-payer option is not on the table, for one; and two, could you then lead us into some understanding as to why even a public option seems to be in doubt?" [Baird town hall, 8/18/09]
- "I believe you have had access to government-provided health care for most of your life, and, you know, I would imagine that most of us here are on Medicare, and there may be some who would like to give up their Medicare. No, none of us do. So what is so wrong with government-provided health care?" [McCain town hall, 8/25/09]
- "Please support real national health care, also called universal single-payer. It has already ... but it is really better and cheaper." [Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN) town hall, 8/27/09]
Nor did Fox News cover this comment from a town hall attendee:
I'm very concerned about the quality of the debate. You know, not only the screaming of misrepresentations, but also the fact that the press really doesn't seem to want to cover policy. You know, they want to cover gossip, and I'm very disappointed, and I would like all of you press to start covering the policy. [Moran town hall, 8/25/09]
On one occasion, Fox News played a clip from Sen. Tom Coburn's (R-OK) August 24 town hall in which a woman talked about her husband's battle with a brain injury but did not express an opinion for or against health care reform. The woman said: "My husband has traumatic brain injury. His health insurance will not cover him to eat and drink. And what I need to know is, are you going to help him where he can eat and drink? We left the nursing home, and they told us we're on our own." Coburn responded, "Well, I think -- first of all, yeah, we'll help. The first thing we'll do is see what we can do individually to help you, through our office. But the other thing that's missing in this debate is us as neighbors, helping people that need our help. You know, we tend to -- the idea that the government is the solution to our problems is an inaccurate, a very inaccurate statement." CNN and MSNBC aired the clip a total of nine times during that week.
Reporting contradicts Fox's assertions about degree of anti-reform sentiment at meetings
Fox played up "boo[ing]" at town hall -- other reporting said it was an aberration. A Fox & Friends August 25 news brief about Sen. Claire McCaskill's (D-MO) August 24 town hall featured on-screen text reading, "TOWN HALL TEMPERS: SEN. MCCASKILL GETS BOOED," as well as footage of the audience booing. However, in an article about the town hall, the Associated Press reported: "A couple of shouts and a few boos punctuated Sen. Claire McCaskill's health care forum in Hannibal, but mostly the crowd crammed into a grade school auditorium offered polite, if mixed, feedback." [Associated Press, 8/24/09]
Fox suggestion of overwhelming opposition at Moran meeting undermined by other press accounts. On the August 26 edition of America's Newsroom, after airing a clip from Moran's August 25 town hall, co-host Gregg Jarrett stated that there "seemed to be more jeers than cheers at that town hall meeting." That sentiment was echoed on Special Report later that day, when host Bret Baier reported: "Virginia Democratic Congressman Jim Moran was greeted by boos Tuesday in Reston, and the crowd frequently interrupted him. Former Democratic presidential candidate Howard Dean was also on hand and both were given a hard time by many of the 3,000 people in that audience."
However, according to an August 26 account of that same town hall by CQ Today, "conservative protesters ... were overmatched by supporters of Moran and Obama, who had their own signs -- or were provided them by Organizing for America, Obama's grass-roots support group -- and who were able to yell loudest." In its August 26 report on the town hall, The Washington Post noted: "Unlike at many town hall meetings that have received attention across the country, the crowd in the Democratic-leaning district was dominated by reform proponents, many carrying signs distributed by President Obama's political action group Organizing for America." [The Washington Post, 8/26/09]
Methodology
Media Matters searched digital video and Nexis transcripts, when available, for clips of health care town halls on all original programming on CNN, the Fox News Channel, and MSNBC from August 24 through August 28. The Nexis search string used was "health and town!." Any clips discovered through the Nexis search were also reviewed on digital video.
Media Matters coded every time a clip of a town hall was played. For a clip to be included in the analysis of pro- and anti-reform attendees, it had to meet two standards: 1) the clip had to feature a question or comment from a town hall attendee that could be classified as either pro- or anti-reform, and 2) the town hall featured in the clip had to be identifiable by date, location, and member of Congress. Clips of town halls that were included in packaged news stories were not included in the analysis unless the story was primarily about the town halls. Live coverage of town halls and coverage of protests outside the town halls were also not included in the analysis. Teasers were not included unless they contained footage that was substantially different from the segment they teased.
When your ideas are in the minority and you've just lost a big election, just scream, yell and make provocative signs (be sure to mention Karl Marx, Adolf Hitler and Hugo Chavez as much as possible) and you'll get the most attention.
They have been weak in the very moment that they need to realize some fights are worth losing an election over. They need to go all in and they have simply been willing to negotiate incremental change and stupid half measures.
I am more disgusted with the spinelessness of these Democrats than I am with the Republican extremists who have driven the debate into la la land.
My take-home pay also increased along with that of the vast majority of American workers. I'm betting that a large number of people you know had the same. On an individual basis it wasn't a lot, but on a nationally cumulative basis it was huge, putting most of those consumer dollars back into the economy.
As for your father, I'm with fawltylogic in calling BS. Please cite for us the specific change in tax code that is having this huge effect on his business. As for laying off employees, if he is able to operate his business with several fewer employees, it means he wasn't operating it very efficiently to begin with. Businesses don't staff according to their tax obligations; they staff according to the number of people of specific skillsets needed to meet their business obligations.
95% of American working families qualified for the higher take-home pay. If you and no one you know saw that increase, then you need to ask your company's payroll department why you didn't. The fact of the matter is, I don't believe you. It strains the credulity of anyone with common sense to believe that you and everyone you know were left out. Unless, that is, your entire circle of acquaintences is a couple of unemployed guys.
Yes, if your father is maintaining his level of business, supplying whatever goods or services to his customers that he was supplying before this mysterious tax increase, then he was staffed too heavily and not operating efficiently. There are reasons to staff above a bare-bones level but those reasons would be pretty much unaffected by most tax increases.
As for the shouting needed to pass an agenda? Unfortunately that's what it's all come down to now. You lot must be pround.
As for "not knowing what's in it?" PUL-LEASE! Do you how many idiotic right-wingers I've encoutered insisting that the "death panels" are on "page 425" of "Obama's HC plan" even after I've SHONW THEM page 425 in full, to refute that nonsense? Oh, but they'll march rigth along, cryinbg about death panels, and rationing and euthanasia and other RW nonsense.
If there's anyone who truly has NO IDEA what in the plan, it's CONSERVTAIVES.
My guess is you either got the tax break and have seen $20 - $40 more in your paychecks and have not noticed it. Or you thought we did not know enough about it that you could BS us and we wouldn't notice. Either way, it is fact. It is reality. Look it up. Learn something. Become one with reality. It will do you good.
You're completely misconstruing my words and you know it. You are incapable of debating honestly.
As soon as it signed into law my pay went up. Why don't you take a look at your stubbs and/or ask you payroll dept. I'll bet my tax relief that you're wrong about yours.
No, only those who watch Fox and/or listen to AM Talk Radio... so... MOST.
If I recall correctly, the people who wouldn't see it until they file their tax returns would primarily be the self-employed. Those who receive a paycheck from someone else and are within the income requirements should have seen a change in their payroll deductions, leading to a higher take-home pay. If starkcr31 receives a paycheck from someone else either his employer screwed up, he's wrong or he's lying.
You should be happy to help those less fortunate than yourself. By the way-you might be eligible for that $40k stimulus check if you want to buy the right apartment. Charlie Rangel got one!!
Does Faux send you a pack of crackers every time you squawk their debunked talking points?
BTW, this thread has nothing to do with MSNBC. Why do you reich-wing fruitcakes obsess over MSNBC so much?
No, this thread is about Faux's far, far reich-wing propaganda. Are you really this dense, or just pretending?
Apparently you can zero concept of relevance and the topic at hand. Moreover, this thread is about health care reform and Faux's propaganda to destroy it. So, again I ask, are you really this dense, or just pretending?
You fail. Again.
I'm curious. Do you believe that when a liberal watches one of the main network news broadcasts he continually mutters "Yeah, that's right!! That's telling 'em. Yeah, that's the way it is."
I've got news for you. Liberals tend to get frustrated watching network news broadcasts. We find that our positions get little coverage, are poorly represented in interviews and are often badly misrepresented. Far too often they allow the liberal perspective to be explained by those who are opposed to it, a formula that guarantees it's misrepresented. Many liberals attribute this to a conservative bias just as many conservatives who see the same thing on their side attribute it to a liberal bias. In fact, it's more of a bias toward toward getting things out rapidly and sensationally with poor attention paid to getting facts or counterpoint.
I've been watching news broadcasts for decades and have often watched them with the charges of "liberal bias" in the back of my mind. I've got my own eyes, ears and mind and have been satisfied that those charges are a load of garbage. The mainstream media news sources are generally centrist.
Consider the source.
1st, yes msnbc is mostly liberal. they make no secret of that.
2nd. fox is very right wing but are so cowardly that they wont admit it and call themselves "fair and balanced" clearly they are not. for proof just look at all the times they get caught spreading misinformation.
3rd. please show me one link to a major news broadcast from a major network to a story that is blatently biased.
4th. you people on the right really need to learn what the word mainstream means. accoring to the right fox has more viewers than anyone else. that, by definition makes fox the MSM.
apparently your reading skills are also in question.
read it again. fox and msnbc are not major broadcast networks. they are cable channels
Have you checked into that community college course in Civics yet? You'd have a better idea of what the terminology you like to throw around all the time actually means.
As I said, just because you watch Fox and believe their bilge, doesn't mean that you are a conservative nor does it mean that people who disagree with it or with you are liberal. You throw those terms around with abandon and you don't really seem to know what they mean.
As I said, your posts don't show that you are well-educated, they show that you are a Fox groupie, has nothing to do with whether you agree with me or not.
-- Despite the Democratic Party's political strength--- seen in its majority representation in Congress and in state houses across the country -- more Americans consider themselves conservative than liberal. While Gallup polling has found this to be true at the national level over many years, and spanning recent Republican as well as Democratic presidential administrations, the present analysis confirms that the pattern also largely holds at the state level. Conservatives outnumber liberals by statistically significant margins in 47 of the 50 states, with the two groups statistically tied in Hawaii, Vermont, and Massachusetts.
I was mostly poking fun at starkcr31's simple-minded dismissal of liberalism as a viable means of governing. A huge number of programs that are now taken for granted and favored by a huge majority of US citizens began as "dangerously liberal ideas." Liberalism has a way of working and becoming co-opted into being considered mainstream.
I guess what we're missing are the definitions of conservative and liberal.
I'll only pick a small nit when you say, "voters have rejected the conservative philosophy of governing".
The rejection was of a "type" of conservatism being exhibited by the republican party and not necessarily rejection of conservative principles. I can tell you this...this conservative was not exactly thrilled with the antics of the republican party during the 8 years of the Bush admin.
Personal perspective can mean so much.
That old personal perspective bugaboo. Kinda like Pres.Obama losing some ground with independent voters because they think he's too liberal...
While some liberals are not happy because they don't think he's liberal enough.
I'll say this as a matter of opinion...80% of the country is not that far apart in their thinking. It's the radical 10% on both ends that are the real fringes.
Only Faux Snooze has engaged in a concerted effort to slant basic news coverage to a particular ideology.
Facts are not "liberal talking points." Facts are facts.
And the FACT is, you present very little in the way of said facts. Most often, I've seen you post direct copies of right wing talking points without attribution, or links, therefore passing off said "facts" as your own, when they're not even close.
Priceless.
If they were biased, but actually reporting on things that were true, then I'd be OK with it.
http://www.mrc.org/cyberalerts/2008/cyb20080819.asp#1
You come to MMFA to find news?
Media Matters for America is a Web-based, not-for-profit, 501(c)(3) progressive research and information center dedicated to comprehensively monitoring, analyzing, and correcting conservative misinformation in the U.S. media.
Launched in May 2004, Media Matters for America put in place, for the first time, the means to systematically monitor a cross section of print, broadcast, cable, radio, and Internet media outlets for conservative misinformation — news or commentary that is not accurate, reliable, or credible and that forwards the conservative agenda — every day, in real time.
Using the website mediamatters.org as the principal vehicle for disseminating research and information, Media Matters posts rapid-response items as well as longer research and analytic reports documenting conservative misinformation throughout the media. Additionally, Media Matters works daily to notify activists, journalists, pundits, and the general public about instances of misinformation, providing them with the resources to rebut false claims and to take direct action against offending media institutions.
I don't subscribe to cable anymore, but when I watch an occasional MSNBC/CNN/Fox video clip on blogs I am just baffled at how 'dumbed' down the information is. Remember, the average person is not very well informed, so the information your getting is not going to be well informing either.
When was the last time a cable news channels actually reported anything NEW of substance? They regurgitate talking points ad nauseum - it's ALL they do (except for breaking news if some celebrity has died or committed a crime).
We would be a better nation if cable news had never been invented.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SCNs7Zpqo98