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Biased
Accounts
Networks Guarantee
Liberal View of Social Security
Executive Summary
Social Security has
been the most debated domestic issue of George W. Bush�s second
term. Baby boomers begin retiring as early as 2008, and the nation�s
retirement system faces an income shortfall beginning as early as
2017, according to the Social Security Administration. President
Bush has called for personal accounts that would restructure the
system to combat this looming problem. Social Security coverage on
the five major networks has been overwhelmingly against personal
accounts � by a margin of 2 to 1. Four of the five gave more air
time to the liberal position than to explaining economic realities.
The Media Research Center�s Free Market Project studied 125 Social
Security stories on CNN�s �Inside Politics,� �CBS Evening News,�
�NBC Nightly News,� ABC�s �World News Tonight� and Fox News�
�Special Report with Brit Hume� between Nov. 15, 2004, and March 15,
2005. This time included Bush�s call for reform shortly after his
re-election into his �60 stops in 60 days� campaign. Among the
findings:
- CBS and CNN Most
Biased: On �CBS Evening News,� 56 percent of stories were
liberal with just 20 percent conservative. CBS reports were loaded
with extreme examples that played up liberal points. CNN�s �Inside
Politics� was worse statistically with 61 percent liberal and 22
percent conservative.
- Fox News Most
Balanced: Fox News� �Special Report with Brit Hume� delivered
an equal 30 percent liberal and 30 percent conservative stories,
with the remaining 40 percent neutral.
- Networks Embrace
�Transition Costs� Scare Tactic: Journalists repeatedly
indicated that the cost of changing over to personal accounts was
too high. This point was made 10 times more often than it was
challenged, and the financial principles that refuted it were
largely ignored.
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