… The massacre in Newtown, Conn., set off a furious debate, prompting an unprecedented amount of media attention on America’s gun laws. But the press’s declining interest in gun control in recent months illustrates just how hard it is for advocates to keep a story alive once Washington stops fighting […] Read more »
How the media outrageously blew the IRS scandal
… In short, the entire scandal narrative was a fiction. But it had real consequences, effectively derailing Obama’s agenda not long after a resounding reelection, costing several people their careers, and distracting and misinforming the public. It’s not that nothing went wrong at the IRS, but that the transgression merited […] Read more »
TV Is Americans’ Main Source of News
Television is the main place Americans say they turn to for news about current events (55%), leading the Internet, at 21%. Nine percent say newspapers or other print publications are their main news source, followed by radio, at 6%. [cont.] Lydia Saad, Gallup Read more »
How the rise of Fox News helped Republican candidates
In the wake of a presidential election, there is an understandable focus on what is holding back the losing party. But we shouldn’t ignore the factors that have advantaged the GOP in recent elections. And as a pair of recent studies show, the Fox News cable channel is one such […] Read more »
The Strip: Journalism Summer Camp
Journalism Summer Camp: Where Idle Reporters Can Run Wild! [cont.] Brian McFadden, The Strip, New York Times Read more »
Voters don’t care how women in politics look
Of late, the press’s tendency to cover the style choices of women in politics has attracted a bit of controversy. … We find that women don’t pay a higher price than men for coverage of their appearance. Unflattering coverage does hurt, but it lowers voters’ assessments of both men and […] Read more »