ACCURACY IN MEDIADetecting and Countering Media Bias

July 2014 – Presented to Doctors for Disaster Preparedness – Knoxville, TN

Beginnings• Accuracy in Media was founded by Reed Irvine in 1969 as

a watchdog group dedicated to exposing, and challenging slanted news coverage while teaching consumers to think critically about the news.

• Efforts to correct media bias included:• Television panel discussions• Attending annual shareholder meetings of major papers• A weekly column syndicated to some 100 papers• Letters to the editor• Purchasing advertising space

“We’ve fought the good fight. Someone had to start pointing out there were serious errors being made in the media—and a lot of them were the fault of the ideological biases of the reporters and editors.”

Reed Irvine, Founder

Media transformation

Days Past• The media landscape in the 1960’s was completely

different than it is today. ABC, NBC, and CBS were the only news sources on television and their programs all aired at the same time for 15 to 30 minutes.

• The only National Newspaper was the Wall Street Journal which was primarily a business publication.

• The New York Times and Washington Post were important papers and were instrumental then, more so than today, in setting the national news agenda.

Social Media is the New Media

• Social media has replaced print media as the go-to source for information

• Breaking or instant news is available on these platforms

• Having a social media presence is key for one’s brand

60%

40%

Americans that use Social Networking Sites

Use Social Net. SitesDo not Use Social Net. Sites

34%

66%

Social Networking Site Users that use it for Polit-

ical Activities

Use Social Networking Sites but Not for Poitical ActivitiesUse Social Networking Sites for Political Activities

Pew Research Center reports that 39% of all Americans use social media sites for political activities. Younger users are more politically active than others.

Legacy of Leadership

• Ideologically, AIM paved the way for conservative news networks and watchdogs.

• Praise and criticism followed

“AIM really was the fountainhead of the effort to denounce the liberal media, and create the image of the mainstream media as very liberal, and that effort proved quite successful.”

Alex S. Jones, Director of Shorenstein Center, Harvard Kennedy School of Government

Letter from the Washington Post

To Reed Irvine

Mrs. Graham has spoken for all of us here at The Washington Post in her letter to you, answering your latest “newsletter”.

You have revealed yourself as a miserable, carping, retromingent vigilante, and I for one am sick of wasting my time in communicating with you.

Benjamin C. BradleeJune 9, 1978

The Left Wants to Control Speech• The left, through groups like Center for American

Progress, are calling for new government regulation of the news and the information we receive.

• Because they no longer have a monopoly on the news and they don’t like being challenged, they talk about localism and diversity of ownership and complain of media consolidation.

• Bias still persists in the media.

Examples of Media Bias

Major Scandals• IRS targeting scandal• Benghazi• Veterans’ Affairs scandal

Others• NBC’s coverage of George Zimmerman• Fast and Furious• Climate Change/Global Warming

IRS Targeting Scandal

• The mainstream media was forced to cover it when it broke, but they have not covered recent revelations of hard drives being destroyed and information purposely hidden by IRS officials like Lois Lerner

Picture from commonsenseevaluation.com

Benghazi

• The media has refused to acknowledge how an American ambassador and his personnel were left to die

• Few mentions were made about how the Obama administration refused to release their PR spin on the Benghazi attacks in e-mails to and from the White House

• Hillary Clinton refuses to take responsibility today

Veterans’ affairs

• The media has buried the scandal since it was discovered there was a cover-up

• Obama has known about it since 2008, when he took office, and the media has not called him out

• Veterans still do not receive adequate care and could cost American taxpayers millions, if not billions, in the next decade to fix

Other examples

• NBC’s coverage of George Zimmerman, where 911 tapes were altered

• Fast and Furious scandal, where Border Patrol agent was murdered by cartel members with U.S. arms

• Climate Change is the NEW Global Warming term

• Visit AIM.org for groundbreaking work on these scandals

Glo

bal W

arm

ing

Funding and Political Power• From 1998—2009 $25 billion of federal funding was

collected for Climate Change research. Researchers who questioned human created climate change did not receive the same grant money for research projects.

• If the Federal Government is arguing that climate change is caused by humans, then the researchers will produce results that grant this theory true.

The liberal media labels dissenters as out of touch,

crazy, deniers

The President Bashes Global Warming Skeptics

Following the Crowd• Climate change theories have changed over time and the

liberal media influences people to go along with their beliefs regardless of scientific errors made by journalists and their dependence on human-interest stories, and other causes of distortion.

1970’s

2007

Politicians Criticize “Deniers”

“It reminds me in some ways of the debate taking place in this country and around the world in the late 1930s – there were people – who said ‘don’t worry! Hit ler ’s not real! I t ’ l l disappear!”

-U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders

Journalists Join Them

“At its core, global warming denial is l ike Holocaust denial, an assault on common decency.”

-David Fiderer

“An Inconvenient Truth is so convincing that it makes opposers of the argument as credible as Holocaust deniers.”

-Jon Niccum, Lawrence Journal-World (2006)

They Promote Propaganda

Chris Matthews

Celebrities Influence Public Opinion Too

“Some people don’t believe in climate warming—like those who don’t believe there

was a Holocaust

– Paul McCartney

Fracking

Fracking Fraud• The media reported that methane migration was always

directly tied to natural gas drilling but methane migration has been a problem in northeastern Pennsylvania for decades and it is probably due to faulty well casing.

• The documentary “Gasland” was part of an effort to get people up in arms. The other side of the story is told in Fracknation.

Americans are Losing Trust in the Media

Hillary’s “Dead Broke” Comment

Become Your Own Watchdog

• Read or watch both sides• Notice who covers what and

what things are left out• Look for loaded words and

terminology• Where is the story located?• How long was the story

covered?

• You can learn to recognize and correct media bias

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E-mail: info@aim.org

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@AccuracyInMedia

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