Sunday morning political talk shows on ABC, CBS, NBC, and Fox devoted just 30 seconds of coverage to net neutrality the week after President Obama called on the Federal Communications Commission to require Internet service providers to treat all content equally. Those same programs dedicated nearly 17 minutes to helping scandalize comments made by Jonathan Gruber, an economist who helped estimate the impact of the Affordable Care Act (ACA).
Sunday Political Shows Dedicate 34 Times More Coverage To Phony Obamacare Scandal Than To Net Neutrality
Published
President Obama Urges The FCC To Codify Strong Net Neutrality Provisions
President Obama Urges Regulators To Implement “Strongest Possible Rules” Protecting Net Neutrality. On November 10, President Obama issued a statement in support of net neutrality and called on the independent Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to issue “the strongest possible rules” to protect the “basic principles of openness, fairness, and freedom” for all Internet users. The president stressed that “consumers, not the cable company” should have final say in what websites and resources they use:
[WhiteHouse.gov, 11/10/14]
Network Sunday Talk Shows Devote 34 Times More Coverage To Manufactured Obamacare Scandal Than Net Neutrality
Fox News Manufactured A Scandal From Economist's Comments On Obamacare. Fox News spent several days promoting a manufactured scandal by suggesting that statements made by MIT economist Jonathan Gruber that the Affordable Care Act (ACA) “was written in a tortured way” somehow discredited the law's passage. Fox dedicated at least 57 segments to hyping the false scandal from November 10-14. [Media Matters, 11/14/14]
Network Sunday Talk Shows Devoted 17 Minutes To Manufactured Obamacare Scandal. The November 16 editions of the four broadcast Sunday news programs -- ABC's This Week with George Stephanopoulos, CBS' Face the Nation, Fox Broadcasting Company's Fox News Sunday, and NBC's Meet the Press -- provided a combined nearly 17 minutes of coverage to right-wing media's false Obamacare scandal. [Media Matters, 11/17/14]
By Comparison, Brief Net Neutrality Mentions On Network Sunday Talk Shows Totaled A Combined 30 Seconds. Only Meet the Press and Face the Nation raised the topic of net neutrality, garnering two brief mentions amounting to roughly 30 seconds of total net neutrality coverage:
[Media Matters, 11/17/14]
Methodology
Media Matters reviewed video and transcript of ABC's This Week with George Stephanopoulos, CBS' Face the Nation, Fox Broadcasting's Fox News Sunday, and NBC's Meet the Press from November 16, 2014 for any discussion of net neutrality or Dr. Jonathan Gruber's statements about health care reform.