Media Fail to Stimulate Honest Debate

While the debate on the economic recovery package has been raging on
Capitol Hill, Media Matters for America
has documented numerous media figures naming Republicans as the winner in
the "stimulus message war."

In declaring the Republicans as the "winner," though, they
have ignored the role their colleagues played in advancing conservative talking points
about the economic recovery package, including falsehoods and claims that have
been completely rejected by economists. Republicans have also had more than
their fair share of airtime to repeat these talking points, outnumbering
Democrats by a ratio of 2 to 1 on the cable news and business networks,
according to Think Progress.

"With a 2-to-1
advantage in television appearances for members of Congress and a slew of
commentators uncritically repeating right-wing talking points, it is not
surprising that the media has declared the Republicans the 'winner'
in the stimulus message war. Unfortunately, it is the American people who have
lost," said Karl Frisch,
a Senior Fellow at Media Matters.
"It is time for the media to give the
public what it deserves --
an intellectually honest debate on the economic recovery package."

Howard Kurtz, who hosts a news program about the media on CNN, claimed
Republicans "did manage to take control of the [stimulus] debate."
Jeanne Cummings, the Politico's
chief lobbying and money correspondent, wrote that
Obama is "losing [the] stimulus message war." They are far from
alone: The Wall Street
Journal, the Los
Angeles Times, and Newsweekhave
all declared Republicans as winning the message war on the economic recovery
package without noting the role the media has played in advancing that message.

Additionally, ThinkProgress released two
reports,
analyzing the number of television appearances by Members of Congress on the cable
news and business networks and found that, in recent weekday coverage,
Republicans have outnumbered Democrats by a ratio of 2 to 1. In an article that
discussed this advantage, Politico's
Michael Calderone asserted that "with so much
network attention being paid to the Obama administration -- including roughly
40 minutes a day devoted to Robert Gibbs' press briefing -- it's understandable
that bookers would seek out House Republicans to provide a
counterbalance."

However, Republicans have also enjoyed an advantage on the
networks' influential Sunday morning talk shows going back to 1997. Two reports issued by Media Matters analyzed the political
ideology of guests on those programs and
found that conservative voices outweighed progressive voices -- no matter what
political party held the majority.

BACKGROUND

Media Matters has
documented the following examples of media echoing, repeating, or advancing
variations of Republican talking points about the economic stimulus plan, many
of which are false or misleading:

The
bill will not stimulate the economy

• The Associated Press
• ABC World
  News anchor Charles
  Gibson

Government
spending in the bill is not stimulus

• CBS Evening News
  correspondent Sharyl Attkisson
• CNN contributor Carol
  Costello
• ABC World
  News anchor Charles
  Gibson

There
is no reason for stimulus after a turnaround begins

• The Wall Street Journal
• CNBC anchor Melissa Francis and
  MSNBC anchor Contessa Brewer

Corporate
tax rate cuts and capital gains tax rate cuts could provide substantial
stimulus

• CNBC host Erin Burnett

Undocumented
immigrants without Social Security numbers would be eligible for the
"Making Work Pay" tax credit

• The Associated Press
• CNN host Lou Dobbs

CBO
analysis found the majority of stimulus won't take effect for at least a year
and a half

• The Washington Post
• CNN White House correspondent Ed Henry
• NBC senior White House correspondent Chuck Todd

Food
stamps and/or unemployment payments are not stimulus

• CNN host Campbell
  Brown
• CNN chief business correspondent Ali
  Velshi
• MSNBC host Mika
  Brzezinski
• MSNBC host Chris
  Matthews

The
economic recovery bill would amount to spending more than $200K per job created

• ABC host George
  Stephanopoulos
• New York Times columnist David
  Brooks

Up
to $4.19 billion of stimulus bill "would go to" ACORN

• The
  Hill
• San Francisco Chronicle

Family
planning provision is like China's
"one-child policy"; could allow government "to regulate the
amount of kids people might be in the moods for"

• MSNBC host Chris
  Matthews
• CNN commentator Jack
  Cafferty
• The
  Wall Street Journal

It
"may take years before the stimulus plan spurs real job growth" or
the plan may not "create any new jobs"

• The Politico

For more information on
the media's coverage of the economic recovery plan, visit www.mediamatters.org.