Special Reports

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

Executive Summary    Congress has debated this year whether taxpayers should provide a half-billion dollars for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (which in turn, funds PBS and NPR). House Republicans  proposed on September 29 that the federal funding for CPB should end. Fiscally, it’s an obviously non-essential expense in an era of trillion-dollar deficits – not to mention hundreds of programming choices on cable TV, the Internet, and satellite radio.  But there…
This is the second part of a BMI report related to BPA, a chemical commonly found in plastics. To read part one click here.The media haven’t been alone in the campaign against supposedly “toxic” chemicals like BPA. Liberal Rep. Edward Markey, D-Mass., introduced a bill in Jan. 2011 that would ban it in all food and beverage containers. That is exactly what many left-wing groups have also been pushing for. On March 6, 2012, Markey’s office also sent a letter to several food companies…
The news media - and the networks in particular - have a problem. The candidate they strongly backed in 2008 is facing a difficult re-election campaign in 2012. With a tough economy, high unemployment and skyrocketing debt, the election is shaping up as a referendum on President Barack Obama's policies. Without much to work with, journalists have changed the subject to targeting his potential opponents - by using, the GOP candidates' religion against them. Despite the fact that 75 percent…
With the 2012 elections less than a year away, the liberal media are attacking President Obama's potential opponents on a number of fronts, but especially on religion.ABC, CBS and NBC have used religion in two ways, either painting the field of GOP primary challengers as a God Squad of religious zealots or playing up differences in their faith. Whether they're letting viewers know that "Rick Perry's gonna have to answer some questions about the people" he prays with, fretting that God "…
    Legendary talk-radio host Rush Limbaugh recently joined a group seeking to purchase the National Football League’s St. Louis Rams, which spurred the latest attempt by the American left-wing media to destroy Limbaugh, or at the very least marginalize him as an extremist – and, they hope, marginalize the millions of American conservatives who agree with him and enjoy his radio show. Some have even wished on national television that he would die or be killed – including Chris…
 Executive SummaryThe premeditated murder of thousands of Americans on September 11, 2001 unified the United States, in grief over the attacks and in resolve to never let it happenagain. Just as Members of Congress stood together as one on the Capitol steps to sing “God Bless America,” the American major media united with the people in their collective shock and outrage. But that feeling did not last. Within a month, America went to war in Afghanistan, and the media returned to its…
Executive Summary In January, the story broke that President Obama’s White House had been the scene of a lavish, star-studded 2009 Halloween party designed by director Tim Burton and including film star Johnny Depp. The Washington Post had it on page 1 of its “Style” section. The New York Times, USA Today and a host of other publications covered it, complete with photos. But network evening news viewers only saw 30 words on ABC “World News Sunday.” NBC and CBS ignored it completely. In…
It was the kind of story the media love: Glamorous liberal celebrities mingling with glamorous liberal politicians. In 2009 the White House hosted an exclusive, lavish Halloween party themed around the new “Alice in Wonderland” movie. Director Tim Burton designed the elaborate decorations, and star Johnny Depp (in full Mad Hatter getup) hobnobbed with guests. Someone worked the East Room dressed in the authentic “Chewbacca” costume from the “Star Wars” movies, on loan from creator George…
Executive Summary    As the nation prepares to pay tribute to former President Ronald Reagan on the 100th anniversary of his birth, it is amazing to consider that his success at turning the U.S. away from 1960s-style liberalism was accomplished in the face of a daily wave of news media hostility. The media’s first draft of history was more myth than reality: that Reagan only brought the nation poverty, ignorance, bankruptcy, and a dangerously imbalanced foreign and defense…
Fear of chemicals and “toxins” is rampant among the so-called “environmental” left. Unfortunately, that phobia infects national media coverage as well. For more than a decade, the left has been on the attack against BPA, a chemical that is commonly found in plastics and other products.Anti-chemical groups such as the Breast Cancer Fund and some scientists have crusaded against BPA (known formally as bisphenol A), connecting it to cancer and reproductive problems and claiming that it is…