October 29, 2010 5:27 PM
Media dissed Beck rally, gaga over Stewart's Sanity
Of course, we know this - but it's helpful to know that someone is gathering empirical evidence.
On the anecdotal side, I've heard (and experienced) that Metro schedules "maintenance" when there is a conservative rally in town, but pulls out all the stops for liberals. The workers are surly towards conservatives but accomodating to liberals.
Since this is a kind of jealousy thing with Jon Stewart and that other guy (can't think of his name) trying to compete with Glenn Beck - and since the numbers definitely weren't shaping up even though Ariana Huffington is sending 200 buses to bring 10,000 people for free buses and Oprah is supporting it - they decided to have a third rally at the same time, involving government workers.
"Government doesn't suck" is the name they've chosen to grace their rally. So uplifting.
And so clever - hoping the gazillion government parasites workers around here will show up to inflate the numbers of these liberal wanna bes.
Major Media Far More Interested in Jon Stewart's Rally Than Glenn Beck's Journalists are practically giddy in anticipation of this weekend's Jon Stewartrally on the National Mall. The Rally's staff has recieved more than1,000 requests for press credentials for the event. Only 400 were give nout.
Those statistics underscore just how much the media loves Stewart's leftist message (and
it is a leftist message).
For some perspective, consider that the September 12, 2010 Tea Party on the Mall received roughly 150 requests for press credentials, according to FreedomWorks, which sponsored the event.
Glenn Beck's "Restoring Honor" rally granted 450 such credentials to
journalists, but in the brief contact NewsBusters had with Beck's staff
there was no indication that any reporter who had requested credentials
had been turned down.
On Thursday, David Carr reported:
More than 1,000 individuals applied for press credentials to the "Rally
To Restore Sanity" on Saturday in Washington, and various broadcast
news networks applied for as many as 40 press passes.
In the end, the list was whittled down to 400 credentials.
There will be a riser for television crews and a media center for print and digital reporters filing on deadline. [Rally producer Craig] Minassian said that Comedy Central will be providing a live feed for both domestic and international outlets, and that the broadcast
television network would be using the same pool approach to coverage that they use for other large events in Washington..."I can't think of a lot of events that have generated this kind of interest," said Mr. Minassian, who has also produced events for HBO in
Washington.
In short, media interest in the Stewart event absolutely dwarfs itsinterest in either the 9/12 Tea Party event or the "Restoring Honor"rally.
Coverage at the respective events will be a dramatic indicator of a double standard in media coverage of political rallies. But even the coverage leading up to the rallies has demonstrated that double standard.
According to a Nexis search ("jon stewart" "rally to restore sanity"),this weekend's rally has received 277 mentions in newspapers, and 37mentions in radio or TV transcripts over the past month. In the monthpreceding the Glenn Beck rally, according to a Nexis search ("glennbeck" "restoring honor"), the event got 112 mentions in newspapers and 18 in transcripts (excluding Beck's own show).
In other words, there has been considerably more buzz around the Stewart event in the past month than there was around the Beck event the month before it took place. And that is before even considering whether those stories were positive or negative (do we really need a detailed analysis to confidently claim that coverage has been more friendly to
Stewart than Beck?).
How to account for the discrepancy? Stewart and Beck get comparableratings levels - roughly 1.9 million viewers for their live programs, onaverage (in fact, Beck reaches a much larger audience when his radio listenership is included). No honest and accurate assessment couldconfidently claim turnout this weekend will be any better than it was
for Beck's rally (which drew an estimated 300,000 attendees).
Clearly the double standard is a product of the media's love for Stewart's brand of pop-culture leftism.
Read more at NewsBusters
Posted in 2010 elections, Media Bias | Permalink
Comments
Barbara, I really enjoy your blog. I get a lot of my news tidbits from you :) I was just wondering if you had seen this video...
http://www.ihatethemedia.com/media-matters-david-brock-calls-on-sarah-palin-to-stop-glenn-beck
Pretty funny. Nothing the progressives do can stop Beck (MUCH to the chagrin of George Soros...boycotts were ineffective) so they try to enlist Sarah Palin. LOL
Posted by: Sue | October 29, 2010 7:56 PM
Barbara, I do have to disagree with you regarding the Metro staff. On 8/28 they were quite accomodating and friendly (albeit unprepared). When the line moved so slowly with people buying tickets from machines with which they were unfamiliar, they announced everyone could get on the train for free! The train driver joked that he was moving as fast as he could to get us there on time. Really, they did not appear to be biased toward us in any way.
Posted by: Deb | October 30, 2010 9:35 PM
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