Special Reports

Apart from politicians embroiled in scandals, rarely have the public perceptions of a candidate soured so quickly. According to Pew Research Center polls from September and October, the percentage of the public that sees Republican vice-presidential nominee Sarah Palin unfavorably shot up from 32 percent to 49 percent in just one month. Why have so many Americans turned against Palin, who made such a strong impression on the public when John McCain introduced her as his running mate at the…

Introduction The mood was sour on Capitol Hill in June 2007. Powerful members of the Senate were humiliated when they were forced to withdraw a wildly unpopular immigration bill that would have provided de facto amnesty to illegal aliens. Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) quickly blamed conservative talk radio hosts for the embarrassing defeat. On CNN's Lou Dobbs Tonight, Feinstein said, 'I listened to talk show hosts drumming up the opposition by using this word 'amnesty' over and over and…

Political activists and even certain U.S. senators have argued that the federal government should reinstitute the Fairness Doctrine, which would require broadcasters to air both sides of controversial issues. Opponents charge that Fairness Doctrine advocates are trying to reduce the impact of conservative talk radio. Rep. Mike Pence (R-Ind.) has introduced The Broadcaster Freedom Act (HR 2905), which would bar the Federal Communications Commission from reinstating the Fairness Doctrine. The…

The Dear Abby column, founded by Pauline Phillips in 1956 and now written by her daughter Jeanne, has a reputation for prescribing sensible advice for many of life's dilemmas, both big and small. Readers generally assume Abby can be trusted to provide traditional advice on all topics. However, a Culture and Media Institute analysis finds that Abby's advice on sexual issues frequently veers far away from traditional moral standards. Traditional morality teaches that sex should be limited to…

Jeanne Phillips, the current writer of the 'Dear Abby' column, is the leading authority figure among advice columnists. Her column runs in 1,400 newspapers worldwide and reaches 110 million readers daily - nearly three times the daily news viewers of ABC, CBS and NBC combined. Phillips enjoys a tremendous platform to promote her beliefs on everything from wedding etiquette to handling the crazy uncle in the attic. The 'Dear Abby' column has a reputation for dispensing solid, homespun wisdom…

See Executive Summary The year was 1929. The decade of the '20s was ending - not with a roar, but with a whimper. Years of a sky-high stock market and speculative buying were coming to a close. The Dow Jones had peaked on Sept. 3 at 381.17 and then began to dive as unknown and prominent companies alike saw their values drop. In a little more than a month, the market lost 14 percent of its value. Then came the crash. The Dow began six days of turmoil with a 6-percent loss on Oct. 23. The…

See Full Report The economy consumes the nightly newscasts. Broadcast networks report that America's finances are 'like a house of cards.' ABC, CBS and NBC even hyped similarities to the Great Depression more than 40 times in the first four months of 2008. But that parallel doesn't hold up, especially when analyzing the news of that era. In fact, daily coverage of the 1929 stock market crash strongly emphasized the positive side of events. The New York Times that year summed up a six-day Dow…

See Executive Summary Correction Appended So much for that job requirement of balance and objectivity. When it came to global warming the media clearly left out dissent in favor of hype, cute penguins and disastrous predictions. "They [penguins] are charismatic, endearing and in serious trouble," warned NBC's Anne Thompson on the Dec. 12, 2007, "Nightly News." Thompson didn't include any disagreement. While the networks had plenty of time to worry about the future of birds, most network news…

See Full Report Correction Appended Global warming crusader Al Gore repeatedly claims the climate change "debate's over." It isn't, but the news media clearly agree with him. Global warming skeptics rarely get any say on the networks, and when their opinions are mentioned it is often with barbs like "cynics" or "deniers" thrown in to undermine them. Consistently viewers are being sent only one message from ABC, CBS and NBC: global warming is an environmental catastrophe and it's mankind's…

This Culture and Media Institute Special Report, The Media Assault on American Values, is the second in a series of reports presenting the most important findings of CMI's major survey of American cultural and moral attitudes, the National Cultural Values Survey. CMI is a division of the Media Research Center, America's foremost media watchdog. The first Special Report in this series, America: A Nation in Moral and Spiritual Confusion, summarized the survey's overall findings. The…