Labeling in the Maine Media

A good contrast is the Maine Heritage Policy Center (MHPC) and the Maine Center for Economic Policy (MCEP). They are similar organizations that approach issues from different philosophical points of view. MHPC is always labeled, usually as conservative. This week one article called MHPC "right-wing." In contrast, it is not unusual for MCEP's orientation not to be mentioned when a representative of the organization is quoted.

Bob:

Bernie Goldberg's book "Bias" deals with this phenomenon at GREAT length. He gives some great examples, like with the impeachment vote on Clinton.

Yes, "Bias" is an eye-opener. Goldberg continues to educate the American public on the ways of the mass media and politicos.

I've started to point out the labeling to the Sun-Journal team.

It would be great if others did the same to their local media outlets. They need to be called on this crap.

Conservatives often identify themselves as such, while liberals/progressives rarely do. How often do you hear a conservative say they don't like to be "labeled" compared to liberals?

A good contrast is the Maine Heritage Policy Center (MHPC) and the Maine Center for Economic Policy (MCEP). They are similar organizations that approach issues from different philosophical points of view. MHPC is always labeled, usually as conservative.

MCEP has been labled liberal by many news organizations recently, as they should be. MHPC is not as far right as they are portrayed to be - they supported the last biennial budget and even lobbied for it in Augusta. It was a horrible budget that only perpetuated the spending, used one-time monies to continue otherwise unsustainable programs and shifted tax burden to property taxes. That being said, their analysis of education, healthcare and spending policies is much appreciated.

I have been calling state and national reporters and editors for years whenever I see this. Most of them acknowledge they need to be more consistent. Some of them have probably never even thought about it.
(My favorite was Wyatt Andrews of CBS........he was very open to the feedback and we actually had a nice half hour chat. Hopefully it made a small dent).

What's really funny Bob is when I do the same here on AMG, by labeling liberals in my headlines as liberals, everyone protests how unfair that is.

I am not against labeling. I am for equality in labeling. Label equally or don't label at all is what I say.

Another MSM labeling trick is to say Republican Congressman XYZ was caught in a scandel...but when it's a democrat, they just say Congressman ABC was caught.... They've been consistant with that one for years.

Of course. And old trick for sure.

www.downeast.com
Maine News Outlets Fend Off Ideological Labels
Submitted by Al Diamon on Mon, 06/14/2010 - 9:00am.

* Maine Media

Recently, the conservative As Maine Goes Web site raised an interesting issue concerning media bias. Several posters claimed Maine news organizations routinely label certain commentators and politicians as conservative, while rarely applying the liberal tag to those on the other end of the ideological spectrum.

In particular, the AMG contributors cited coverage of two think tanks: the Maine Heritage Policy Center (MHPC) and the Maine Center for Economic Policy (MCEP).

http://www.downeast.com/media-mutt/2010/june/maine-newspapers-ideological

A Google count of my own (entering each organization, with the dates "May 2010" and "April 2010") turns up 18 references to MHPC, with 12 labels being used (66% of the time). Meanwhile, the less-active MCEP gets mentioned 6 times, with 3 labels used (50% of the time). While things may be slowly improving (due to MUCH pestering of reporters and editors by folks who shouldn't have to), there is still a pretty noticable difference.
Also, the continuing use of Potholm for a quote is truly egregious and unprofessional, given his well-known (but oft-ignored) personal history.

It would be great to label ourselves republicans and democrats.....toss in a green and an independent for equality.