“Fair and Balanced?” Justice Issues on Political Talk Shows

Abstract

Like their news program predecessors, many political talk shows focus a considerable amount of their coverage on justice issues. Although numerous past studies have examined justice issue presentation in news programs, infotainment, and crime drama, to date only one forthcoming study has examined crime and justice coverage on political talk shows. Political talk shows often present issues in a debate format, as well as emphasize the balanced nature of the content in advertising, with one program even using the slogan "fair and balanced." Building upon the format of previous media studies, we analyzed a composite month of videotaped footage of three popular political talk shows appearing on cable networks: CNN's Lou Dobbs Tonight, MSNBC's Hardball with Chris Mathews, and The O'Reilly Factor from the Fox News Channel. Using content analysis techniques, this study examines balance in the form and content of these programs in terms of presentation of justice issues, political party identification of hosts and guests and realistic presentations of race and gender in the context of crime and justice. Results indicate that these programs tend to adopt an advocacy tone rather than an objectivist one. Furthermore, we demonstrate that racial and gender portrayals of crime and justice on these shows are significantly distorted from reality, with a priority afforded to white female victims of violent crime and minority male offenders.

The whiteness of white-collar crime in the United States: Examining the role of race in a culture of elite white-collar offending

“…Furthermore, the media’s qualitative depiction of Whites differs from that of minorities. In news as well as fictional portrayals of crime, Whites are more likely to be shown in sympathetic roles (such as a victim; Bjornstrom et al, 2010; Britto and Dabney, 2010; Britto et al, 2007). A common explanation for lacking diversity in popular culture is that it does not “sell” (Terrero, 2014), implying that Whites as a group have difficulty relating to, or empathizing with, characters that are racially different from themselves.…”

The Influence of Media on Penal Attitudes

“…Additionally, the advent of 24-hr news cable news channels, beginning with cable news networks in 1980, flood television with more news about crime. But like local television news, these outlets also provide more “soft news” about crime rather than coverage that analyzes and contextualizes information about crime (Britto & Dabney, 2010; Frost & Philips, 2011). Finally, in the late 1980s, sensational crime stories became the staple of a new form of entertainment—“reality” programming, such as COPS and America’s Most Wanted (Cavender & Fishman, 1998).…”

Ethnic disparities in the issuance of multiple traffic citations to motorists in a southern suburban police agency

“…Police officers have personal socialization experiences through education and the media that contribute to their perceptions of others (Smith & Alpert, 2007;Tillyer et al, 2012). During media broadcasts, more negative accounts of Blacks and Hispanics occur than other racial groups (see Britto & Dabney, 2010). Research suggests the White majority of the United States population have negative perceptions of minorities (Blair, 2002) and police departments are overrepresented by White male officers (Ragnella & White, 2004).…”