mediacrit.com

Harold Meyerson, “For ACORN, Truth Lost Amid the Din,” Washington Post, September 23, 2009. University of Northern Iowa, “Profs: Why ACORN was in the news in ’07-’08, and what the media got wrong,” Romenesko, September 23, 2009. Alicia Shepard, “The ACORN Videos: Did NPR Ignore Them?” NPR, September 23, 2009. Michael Calderone, “Study: Media’s been [...]

[Read more →]

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE A study by Christopher R. Martin, Ph.D. and Peter Dreier, Ph.D. Using the controversy over ACORN as a case study, this report illustrates the way the media help set the agenda for public debate, and frame the way that debate is shaped. It describes how “opinion entrepreneurs” (primarily business and conservative groups [...]

[Read more →]

There has been mounting criticism of Wal-Mart in recent years. Critics charge they kill off small local businesses, they contribute to urban sprawl, they squeeze suppliers into bankruptcy, they discriminate against female employees, they hire illegal aliens and fire union organizers.

Last January, Wal-Mart fought back with a multi-million-dollar massive public relations blitz, including full-page advertisements in more than 100 newspapers, a new round of television commercials featuring happy blue-vested Wal-Mart workers, and a web site called walmartfacts.com (as an antidote to critical sites such as walmartwatch.com).

[Read more →]

The truly fake news comes in the form of VNRs – video news releases – that are created by special interest groups like corporations and politicized government agencies and then played on TV news. For example, as the New York Times reported in March, more than 20 federal agencies have used taxpayer money to produce hundreds of VNRs promoting Bush administration policies. Such VNRs are most dangerous when they come to our television screens without local television editorial oversight or attribution.

[Read more →]