Press Snubs Public in Recession Coverage, PEJ Study Finds

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In The Brass Check (1919), Socialist muckraker Upton Sinclair condemned U.S. journalists for being ultra-conservative and catering to the economic and political powers that be. According to a just-released study by the Pew Research Center's Project for Excellence in Journalism (PEJ) of news media coverage of the economic crisis, the findings of the self-described nonpartisan "fact tank" suggest Sinclair may have been on to something.

Analyzing coverage by newspapers, cable, radio, television and online outlets from February 2008, through August 2008, of  9,950 stories addressing the nation's economic woes, the PEJ study found almost 40 percent focused on the banking sector, auto industry, and government struggles to develop and implement the stimulus package. Three-quarters of the economics stories during this period carried either New York or Washington, D.C. datelines.

Moreover, at the first signs of  improvement in the economy, media coverage dropped precipitiously, from 46 percent of overall news coverage in February and March 2008, to only 21 percent of total coverage from April through June. Stories about union workers and ordinary citizens accounted for only 2 percent of the stories reviewed.

The PEJ study concluded that the news media covered the recession from the top down, emphasizing the viewpoint of big business and the Obama White House, rather than the closer to home plight of homeowners,  the jobless, and other ordinary folks who bore the brunt of the economic downturn.