Special Reports

An in-depth study, analysis or review exploring the media

Are the media influencing Americans to duck responsibility for their own decisions and behavior? By undermining core moral values, are the media leading Americans away from a mature acceptance of personal responsibility for their own lives and for their obligations to others? According to the National Cultural Values Survey, a major study of American cultural and moral values, most Americans think so. The study, commissioned by the Culture and Media Institute, finds that large majorities…
See Full Report  More than 600,000 homes are currently in foreclosure; both houses of Congress and the president have proposed different bailout plans for the mortgage “crisis;” and Americans are drowning in $2.4 trillion worth of red ink.      But the problems of consumer debt are made worse because the liberal media ignore personal responsibility and instead use the issue to beat up on businesses that lend money to people who want to borrow.     Two…
Businessmen are in every city and town in America. They make the tractors that harvest your food, the jewelry you wear and the electricity that makes our society run. They sell vegetables at your farmers' market and help you get connected to the World Wide Web. They give heart surgeons a place to work and kids a place to play after school. And whether you work for one of them, a non-profit, or the government, they pay for your job. What do they earn for all of their hard work?…
See Full Report American businessmen and women put in hard work and take big risks to build successful companies. Those firms provide the jobs, products and services that drive the U.S. economy. When the work and risks pay off, businessmen become philanthropists who give billions of dollars to their communities and charities around the world. But when they are covered in the media – which isn’t often – they’re most likely to be attacked.      In a yearlong study of evening…
See Executive Summary Introduction It didn't take long for the new Congress to try to increase government regulation of health care through mandated prescription prices. Less than one month after taking power, House Democrats OK'd a bill requiring federal drug price negotiation for 23 million people covered by Medicare's prescription drug plan.The bill 'is likely to help shape the debate' over government control of drug prices, according to the Los Angeles Times. The House…
See Full Report  Liberal Democrats have taken charge in Congress, and one of the top targets for their anti-business rage has long been the pharmaceutical industry. In their “100 hours” plans, Democrats tried to institute price controls on Medicare prescription drugs. Have their attacks on industry encountered a receptive media?      Yes. The Business & Media Institute (BMI) has found a recurring network news bias against the pharmaceutical industry, treating drugs…
See Full Report  Polls have repeatedly shown a public dissatisfied with the economy under President Bush. A January 2006 Pew Research Center survey said 64 percent of those questioned thought economic conditions were fair or poor – and that wasn’t even Bush’s low point. The May New York Times/CBS poll gave Bush just a 28 percent rating for the economy.     Network news stories have painted a bleak picture of an economy in decline. Reporters treated gas prices as a…
See Executive Summary Tune into the network news shows any time during the last year and you'd likely find reporters warning about 'an economy just a bit off-key' or even a 'recession.' The U.S. economy has been depicted as one major event away from collapse on all three evening news shows on ABC, CBS and NBC. The networks focused on almost every unfavorable piece of news they could find to harm the economy. Hurricanes, housing, gas prices and jobs all filled the TV screen. On the…
See Full Report Al Gore has experienced a surge in media coverage this summer generated mostly by the release of his new film and book on global warming, “An Inconvenient Truth.” Even with the extensive media coverage – more than one network story per day on average – Gore’s film spent only one week in the top ten. The film only made it to the number nine position.      By comparison “X-Men III – The Last Stand” had only had 25 appearances on the networks in the same three-…
See Executive Summary  In the heat of the summer the media talked up a storm about global warming. And the most celebrated “expert” on the topic was a man who received a degree in government, dropped out of two graduate programs (law and divinity) and received a D and a C-plus in natural sciences. Al Gore, whose stunning educational record was reported by The Washington Post on March 19, 2000, went from policy wonk to movie star almost over night.      Gore and his…