There’s a view in TV Newsland that when it comes to the political agendas of evening cable hosts, MSNBC offsets the Fox News Network. But in a new study of how two dueling shows handled coverage of the recall of anti-union Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, only one can claim to be fair and balanced.
A new review of the Scott coverage on MSNBC’s Ed Show found that host Ed Schultz started 15 months ago with a pro-Walker supporter and then offered up a string of 237 back-to-back-to-back Walker foes. According to the center-right Media Research Center, that 237-1 rate during Schultz’s war on Walker meant that his guest ratio was 99.6 percent anti-Walker.
What’s more, the new MRC survey found that the MSNBC host used a portion or a majority of 128 episodes of his nightly 8 p.m. show to whack Walker who he accused of mounting a “mission to destroy basic human rights, union rights that is, for public employees.”
Walker is facing a recall election next Tuesday for requiring state workers to pay for part of their health care and limiting collective bargaining rights to wages. Foes claimed he was trying to kill public unions and won the right to hold a recall election, but recent polls suggest Walker will tough it out.
Fox hasn’t been as one-sided in the 8 p.m. hour where Bill O’Reilly rules. While Schultz devoted 128 shows to hit Walker, O’Reilly only talked Walker on 19 shows. In those, he featured 12 pro-Walker advocates to eight foes with seven “neutral voices,” said MRC.
But Fox’s morning show Fox & Friends faced liberal criticism Wednesday when it ran a four-minute news review of the Obama years that featured the president promising hope and change against a backdrop of higher gas prices, wider use of food stamps, surging debt and persistent unemployment.
“They crossed a new ethical line today by producing and airing what is essentially a four-minute anti-Obama attack ad,” said Media Matters, a Fox critic.
