An attack by the media? Or: Bias?
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The document analyzes media coverage of sexual harassment allegations against Herman Cain from his time as head of the National Restaurant Association in the 1990s. It finds that MSNBC's coverage uses charged language like "accused" and "allegedly" frequently when discussing the story. Meanwhile, the AP treats the story as straight news when republishing the allegations. The document also examines the source of the allegations, Politico, finding that it heavily promoted the story but the reporters who broke it had varied political backgrounds. It ultimately concludes any political story will have a charged atmosphere.
An attack by the media? Or: Bias?
- 1. An Attack by the Media? Herman Cain - Did he do it or is it a "Witch Hunt"? by jamie cohen Getting to the bottom of the story - Mass 001C
- 3. Under the header of Politics, the story is mentioned 3 times. Seems pretty blatant. NYTimes.. only once.
- 4. Big story on BriWi's Nightly News. He'll have Jon Stewart on his new show later. But. You can see Herman Cain stories all over the page. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/45099767/ns/politics-decision_2012/#.TrAz9b_Q75c
- 5. Well crud. The article was written by the news service. Must be a collaboration. - It is. Comes from the Wire (AP) and NBC News.
- 6. Before I analyzed it, I assumed it would be straight forward news.. but I analyzed it anyway. Looks like straight news, but now we can see that "allegations" and "accused" are said quite often. This means the story is far from solid.
- 7. Quick interjection What we know now is that Cain is accused of allegedly harrassing employees of his company over ten years ago. The story is charged with rhetoric on MSNBC, but the AP is reporting it as information. The Wire story was picked up by hundreds of affiliates. Now onto the jump: The information says that this was discovered by Politico, the only political newspaper. So, let's head over to there.
- 8. Politico opens their article with a video of Cain denying it completely Monday morning to admitting it was possible, but he didn't know about it Monday night.
- 9. Now this is interesting.. Politico (aside from loving saying its own name) puts a lot of value into the story and treats it as news. Politico says they "confirmed the identities of the two female restaurant association employees who complained about Cain but, for privacy concerns, is not publishing their names." If that is true, it is a bit more credible. This visualization is actually not helpful. http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1011/67194.html
- 10. Now even more interesting, the top 2 of the 4 reporters are split down the middle for possible bias. Martin has worked for CNN, MSNBC, NPR, etc and Haberman has worked for NY Post and NY Daily News. Well. What is Politico's slant?
- 11. I'll say this. Before I researched, it seems to me Politico has it out for Mr. Cain. 15 mentions and 3 pictures. It seems they love Herman Cain as much as themselves. 3 mentions on FoxNews.com
- 12. To sum up. Many readers find Politico to be slightly left, but most find it centrist. The owner and founder of Politico is Robert Allbritton. He owns Allbritton Communications, tv stations in D.C. which are affiliated with ABC. The paper started in 2007 and has former Assistant to Ronald Reagan, Frederick J. Ryan Jr as CEO. In 2008, Media Matters for America accused the paper of having a "Republican tilt" when they were publicly endorsed by George W. Bush. In 2008, the paper expanded to and hired more staff with variable background as seen before. Bottom line: Any political story is going to be highly charged.