Desertdog
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What a surprise, what a surprise. NOT.
Media coverage of Virginia Tech massacre shows anti-gun bias, says watchdog
Chad Groening
OneNewsNow.com
http://www.onenewsnow.com/2007/04/media_coverage_of_virginia_tec.php
A media watchdog organization says the mainstream media did everything it could to drum up more support for gun control, judging by the overwhelming anti-gun bias it showed in the recent coverage of the Virginia Tech killings.
In 2000, the Media Research Center *MRC) released a study reviewing two years of gun policy stories on ABC, CBS, CNN, and NBC. The Virginia-based group found that stories advocating gun control outnumbered stories opposing gun control by a ratio of almost 10-to-1.
Tim Graham, director of media analysis at MRC, says the coverage of the Virginia Tech massacre shows that bias has not changed. "There was really just no attempt made in any way to say let's have a debate," he contends. "We were going to have a lecture shoved down our throat."
The liberal tone of the coverage was very similar to what was reported in the aftermath of the 1999 school shootings in Littleton, Colorado, the media watchdog asserts. "Certainly," he says, "what we saw when we did a study in 2000 about the aftermath of the Columbine High School shooting, we had, for example, on ABC's Good Morning America, basically a slant of about 92-to-1" in favor of gun control, "and I suspect that when [the liberal media] feel the time is emotionally right we're going to go right back to that."
But despite the media bias, Graham does not believe the anti-gun side can prevail at this point. "Even though we have two Democratic houses of Congress now, President Bush is still there to veto anything they would pass, and it's not veto proof," the media analyst points out. "So, yeah -- I think there is some justified pessimism on behalf of the anti-gun crowd that anything is going to pass," he says.
Still, Graham believes the networks do not want to acknowledge that any other agenda exists besides what he calls the "gun-hating" agenda -- and that cause, he contends, is being undertaken with "messianic zeal."
Media coverage of Virginia Tech massacre shows anti-gun bias, says watchdog
Chad Groening
OneNewsNow.com
http://www.onenewsnow.com/2007/04/media_coverage_of_virginia_tec.php
A media watchdog organization says the mainstream media did everything it could to drum up more support for gun control, judging by the overwhelming anti-gun bias it showed in the recent coverage of the Virginia Tech killings.
In 2000, the Media Research Center *MRC) released a study reviewing two years of gun policy stories on ABC, CBS, CNN, and NBC. The Virginia-based group found that stories advocating gun control outnumbered stories opposing gun control by a ratio of almost 10-to-1.
Tim Graham, director of media analysis at MRC, says the coverage of the Virginia Tech massacre shows that bias has not changed. "There was really just no attempt made in any way to say let's have a debate," he contends. "We were going to have a lecture shoved down our throat."
The liberal tone of the coverage was very similar to what was reported in the aftermath of the 1999 school shootings in Littleton, Colorado, the media watchdog asserts. "Certainly," he says, "what we saw when we did a study in 2000 about the aftermath of the Columbine High School shooting, we had, for example, on ABC's Good Morning America, basically a slant of about 92-to-1" in favor of gun control, "and I suspect that when [the liberal media] feel the time is emotionally right we're going to go right back to that."
But despite the media bias, Graham does not believe the anti-gun side can prevail at this point. "Even though we have two Democratic houses of Congress now, President Bush is still there to veto anything they would pass, and it's not veto proof," the media analyst points out. "So, yeah -- I think there is some justified pessimism on behalf of the anti-gun crowd that anything is going to pass," he says.
Still, Graham believes the networks do not want to acknowledge that any other agenda exists besides what he calls the "gun-hating" agenda -- and that cause, he contends, is being undertaken with "messianic zeal."
