We knew this already, of course, and it’s the same regarding almost every issue — rarely does the media get it right. From the Washington Post (of all places!):
Way back in March, when gay marriage issues exploded upon the Supreme Court, National Organization for Marriage President Brian Brown didn’t appreciate how the media covered the news. His ideological brethren had to fight to get their views into stories in newspapers, online and on television. Included on his list of hard-to-crack outlets was this: “I think on the cable networks, the coverage has not been great at all. Even on Fox News, we find it difficult to get broadcast time airing our views.” (Bolded text added.)
Nearly three months later, a study by the Pew Research Center’s Project for Excellence in Journalism (PEJ) has completed a close examination of how the media covered the issue. The principal finding? Detractors of gay marriage couldn’t buy their way into the coverage. Well, that’s the unscientific way of putting things. Here’s how the PEJ puts it: “Almost half (47%) of the nearly 500 stories studied from March 18 (a week prior to the Supreme Court hearings), through May 12, primarily focused on support for the measure, while 9% largely focused on opposition and 44% had a roughly equal mix of both viewpoints or were neutral.”
And the report carries this echo of Brown’s statement to the Erik Wemple Blog:
This news media focus on support held true whether the stories were reported news articles or opinion pieces, and was also the case across nearly all media sectors studied. All three of the major cable networks, for instance, had more stories with significantly more supportive statements than opposing, including Fox News.
