Constitutional Law

New Study of Media Reveals Pro-Business Bias in Economic News Coverage

by David Madland, Director of the American Worker Project at the Center for American Progress and co-author of “The Progressive Generation: How Young Adults Think About the Economy.”

The Center for American Progress has released a new report which finds that “the media ignores ordinary workers and instead covers economic issues from the perspective of business.”

Last week’s front-page Washington Post article on why Americans are “gloomier than the economy” exemplifies this trend. The reporter, Neil Irwin, sets out to prove that the economy is not as bad as most Americans believe – and though he talked to several business representatives -- avoided talking to a single, ordinary worker and thus failed to mention that incomes for most workers have declined since 2001, that health care and retirement benefits have become scarcer and more expensive, and that inequality has risen to unprecedented levels.

It may seem surprising that a story about how Americans perceive the economy didn’t talk to any regular citizens, but, unfortunately this kind of coverage is far too common. Only when the media covers consumer issues, such as credit card debt, do they give equal weight to the perspective of average citizens.

If the media included the perspective of workers in more stories, coverage would significantly improve.

Full post as published by ACS Blog on June 23, 2008 (boomark / email).