Hume selectively quoted media study, omitted figures unfavorable to FOX

Written by Gabe Wildau

Published

FOX News Channel managing editor and chief Washington correspondent Brit Hume selectively quoted the results of a media watchdog's study, reporting a figure that made FOX News Channel appear fair and balanced, while ignoring a key statistic that indicates FOX's overwhelming pro-Republican slant.

On the “Grapevine” segment of the October 18 edition of FOX News Channel's Special Report with Brit Hume, Hume reported on a new study from the Center for Media and Public Affairs (CMPA) showing that assessments of Senator John Kerry were more positive than those of President George W. Bush on the three major network news broadcasts. Referring to the study's analysis of “news segments” on Special Report, Hume added that “the same survey found that news coverage on this program was virtually even.” But the study actually distinguished between three separate kinds of segments on Special Report: “news segments,” “issue coverage,” and “panelists' comments.” Hume referred only to the figure for “news segments,” which showed equal proportion of positive assessments for both candidates. He did not mention the study's finding that the “FOX All-Star Panel,” which appears daily on Special Report, overwhelmingly favored Bush.

From the October 18 edition of FOX News Channel's Special Report with Brit Hume:

HUME: A new survey by the Center of Media and Public Affairs shows the big three networks's evening newscast all tilt in favor of Senator Kerry. The survey, conducted last month, shows that on ABC evening news, 38 percent of the Kerry coverage was positive, while only 20 percent of the Bush coverage was. NBC's evening news had a pro-Kerry margin of 38 to 30 percent over Bush. And CBS's newscast was the most balanced with Kerry favored only 38 percent to 35 percent.

By the way, the same survey found that news coverage on this program was virtually even, 30 percent of Bush coverage being favorable and 28 percent of the Kerry coverage being favorable.

While Hume accurately reported the study's findings on ABC, CBS, and NBC, he left out a key statistic about his own show -- namely, that comments by the “All-Star Panel” “favored Bush by 50 percent positive to only 13 percent positive toward Kerry.” Assuming one accepts the study's criteria as a valid indicator of media bias, this means that the “All-Star Panel” is 285 percent more favorable to Bush than to Kerry. Given that this imbalance dwarfs even the most “biased” of the news programs on the “big three” networks, ABC's World News Tonight -- whose coverage, according to the study, is 90 percent more favorable to Kerry than Bush -- Hume surely would have mentioned this finding if he was concerned about offering the study's most striking findings concerning media bias in nightly news programs.

Other recent CMPA studies found similar results regarding Special Report's anti-Kerry tilt. A study released September 9 found that evaluations of Bush on the network news broadcasts and major newsweeklies -- as well as FOX News Channel -- were more negative than positive. But the study also found what it called “The FOX News Difference.” The study reported: “FOX News Channel was about as negative towards Bush as the broadcast networks [”more than 60 percent" negative for Bush], but Kerry's evaluations were negative by a five-to-one [negative-to-positive] margin [around 84 percent negative for Kerry]." Special Report did not report on this study.