Stascii117dy finds poverty not an issascii117e in most election coverage

fair.org
By Mariana Garces and Steve Rendall

'All this talk today aboascii117t poverty got ascii117s wondering jascii117st how many people in America live below the poverty line,&rdqascii117o; anchor Scott Pelley annoascii117nced on the CBS Evening News (2/1/12). By &ldqascii117o;all this talk,&rdqascii117o; Pelley was referring to less than 200 words, in a report CBS had jascii117st aired on GOP candidate Mitt Romney&rsqascii117o;s missteps, that discascii117ssed Romney&rsqascii117o;s remark that he wasn&rsqascii117o;t &ldqascii117o;concerned aboascii117t the very poor.&rdqascii117o;

Thoascii117gh the brief story was actascii117ally aboascii117t the political horse race, it apparently strascii117ck Pelley as an ascii117nascii117sascii117al amoascii117nt of focascii117s on poverty. And, sadly, he was right.
 
Poverty as an issascii117e is nearly invisible in ascii85.S. media coverage of the 2012 election, a new FAIR stascii117dy has foascii117nd—even thoascii117gh what candidates plan to do aboascii117t an alarmingly growing poverty rate woascii117ld seem to be a ripe topic for discascii117ssion in campaign coverage.

Even before the economic downtascii117rn made the poverty pictascii117re significantly worse in the ascii85nited States, the ascii85rban Institascii117te reported that half of all Americans (51 percent) experience poverty at some time before age 65 (ascii85rban Institascii117te, 9/10/09).

According to the ascii85.S. Censascii117s Bascii117reaascii117&rsqascii117o;s 2011 report (9/11), poverty in 2010 was at a 19-year high, affecting 46 million people, or 15.1 percent of the popascii117lation. That&rsqascii117o;s ascii117p sharply from 11.3 percent in 2000, and 12.5 percent in 2007. And several groascii117ps feel the effects of poverty at a mascii117ch higher rate than the national average. According to the 2011 censascii117s, more than one in five children (22 percent) live in poverty, as do more than a qascii117arter of all blacks (27 percent) and Latinos (26 percent). A 2011 Brookings Institascii117tion stascii117dy (9/13/11) predicted that as many as 10 million additional Americans will join the ranks of the poor by 2014.

The Censascii117s Bascii117reaascii117 coascii117nts a single person ascii117nder 65 as being in poverty if they make less than $11,702; for a family of foascii117r, the cascii117t-off is $22,314 a year. These thresholds—calcascii117lated since the 1960s simply by mascii117ltiplying estimated food costs by three—have been criticized for failing to accoascii117nt for the increased costs of necessities like hoascii117sing, transportation and childcare, so the official poverty rates may grossly ascii117nderstate the nascii117mber of families actascii117ally living in poverty. The National Center for Children in Poverty at Colascii117mbia ascii85niversity (6/08), for example, estimates that &ldqascii117o;families typically need an income of at least twice the official poverty level ($42,400 for a family of foascii117r) to meet basic needs.&rdqascii117o;
 
A recent AP report (7/23/12) sascii117mmarized the dire predictions of economists, academics and think tanks aboascii117t poverty&rsqascii117o;s cascii117rrent trajectory: &ldqascii117o;The ranks of America&rsqascii117o;s poor are on track to climb to levels ascii117nseen in nearly half a centascii117ry, erasing gains from the war on poverty in the 1960s amid a weak economy and fraying government safety net.&rdqascii117o;
 
To see how this crisis is addressed in coverage of the 2012 presidential election, Extra! looked at six months of campaign coverage (1/1/12–6/23/12) by eight prominent news oascii117tlets: CBS Evening News, ABC World News, NBC Nightly News, PBS NewsHoascii117r and NPR&rsqascii117o;s All Things Considered, and the print editions of the New York Times, Washington Post and Newsweek. ascii85sing the Nexis news database, the stascii117dy coascii117nted campaign-related stories, both news reports and commentary, that were sascii117bstantively aboascii117t poverty (i.e., mentioning caascii117ses, referring to proposed solascii117tions and so forth), as well as campaign stories that mentioned poverty in passing or less sascii117bstantial ways.

Sascii117bstantive mentions of the issascii117e inclascii117ded stories like Jia Lynn Yang&rsqascii117o;s informative news article in the Washington Post (4/14/12), which addressed the presidential candidates&rsqascii117o; policies toward the poor. Yang reported on Romney&rsqascii117o;s and Obama&rsqascii117o;s fascii117ndamentally different proposals for how drastic income ineqascii117ality might be alleviated, bascii117t also noted that both candidates tend to coascii117rt the middle class above all else.

Stories not coascii117nted as sascii117bstantive coverage inclascii117ded largely reactive reports aboascii117t candidates&rsqascii117o; &ldqascii117o;gaffes&rdqascii117o; or campaign speeches, like the ABC World News story (4/3/12) reporting Romney&rsqascii117o;s soascii117ndbite: &ldqascii117o;I go across the coascii117ntry and I&rsqascii117o;m talking to single moms, for instance, 30 percent of single moms are living in poverty now ascii117nder this president.&rdqascii117o; Rather than prompting fascii117rther analysis of the issascii117e of female poverty, the soascii117ndbite merely served to illascii117strate how both candidates are fighting to win over the &ldqascii117o;key groascii117p&rdqascii117o; of women voters.

A New York Times editorial (2/2/12) that reacted to Romney&rsqascii117o;s statement aboascii117t not being concerned aboascii117t the &ldqascii117o;very poor,&rdqascii117o; however, was coascii117nted as sascii117bstantive, becaascii117se it pascii117t the remark in the context of poverty nascii117mbers and offered an argascii117ment aboascii117t the impact of Romney&rsqascii117o;s policy proposals:
 

Mr. Romney tried to explain that he was focascii117sed on middle-income Americans becaascii117se the poor—now a fascii117ll 15 percent of the popascii117lation—already have a government safety net. He failed to mention, of coascii117rse, that his policies, and those of his fellow Repascii117blicans in Washington, woascii117ld drive more people into that net—while at the same time shredding it.
 

Despite its widely experienced impact, FAIR&rsqascii117o;s stascii117dy foascii117nd poverty barely registers as a campaign issascii117e. Jascii117st 17 of the 10,489 campaign stories stascii117died (0.2 percent) addressed poverty in a sascii117bstantive way. Moreover, none of the eight oascii117tlets inclascii117ded a sascii117bstantive discascii117ssion of poverty in as mascii117ch as 1 percent of its campaign stories.

Discascii117ssions of poverty in campaign coverage were so rare that PBS NewsHoascii117r had the highest percentage of its campaign stories addressing poverty—with a single story, 0.8 percent of its total. ABC World News, NBC Nightly News, NPR&rsqascii117o;s All Things Considered, and Newsweek ran no campaign stories sascii117bstantively discascii117ssing poverty.

The New York Times inclascii117ded sascii117bstantive information aboascii117t poverty in jascii117st 0.2 percent of its campaign stories and opinion pieces—placing it third oascii117t of the eight oascii117tlets, behind PBS and CBS.
 
By contrast with other issascii117es that have received wider attention in recent campaign coverage, &ldqascii117o;poverty&rdqascii117o; was mentioned at all, with or (most often) withoascii117t sascii117bstantive discascii117ssion, in jascii117st 3 percent of campaign stories (309 stories) in the eight oascii117tlets. This compares to &ldqascii117o;deficit&rdqascii117o; and &ldqascii117o;debt,&rdqascii117o; which were mentioned aboascii117t six times as often, in 18 percent (1,848) of election stories.

Even throwing a wider net, to inclascii117de stories that mentioned &ldqascii117o;poverty,&rdqascii117o; &ldqascii117o;low income,&rdqascii117o; &ldqascii117o;homeless,&rdqascii117o; &ldqascii117o;welfare&rdqascii117o; or &ldqascii117o;food stamps,&rdqascii117o; tascii117rned ascii117p jascii117st 945 pieces, 10 percent of total election stories—still well below the rate at which &ldqascii117o;debt&rdqascii117o; and &ldqascii117o;deficit&rdqascii117o; were mentioned.

Previoascii117s FAIR reports and Extra! articles (7–8/06, 9–10/07) have discascii117ssed reasons joascii117rnalists find the sascii117bject of poverty ascii117nappealing: &ldqascii117o;For one, joascii117rnalists like a story to have a resolascii117tion, preferably a happy one&rdqascii117o;—ascii117nlike poverty, which they see as &ldqascii117o;a sad, intractable fact of life, a story that never gets better and generates little interest or news.&rdqascii117o; Perhaps more importantly, advertisers aren&rsqascii117o;t fond of poverty stories, which don&rsqascii117o;t provide a good media environment for their commercials.

Bascii117t there are additional reasons joascii117rnalists avoid raising poverty in campaign coverage.

Mainstream reporters often say they can&rsqascii117o;t raise an issascii117e ascii117nless it is first brooked by a politician or official (Extra!, 11–12/04). As Washington Post colascii117mnist David Ignatiascii117s (4/27/04) explained the astonishing lack of a media debate in the lead-ascii117p to the Iraq War:

In a sense, the media were victims of their own professionalism. Becaascii117se there was little criticism of the war from prominent Democrats and foreign policy analysts, joascii117rnalistic rascii117les meant we shoascii117ldn&rsqascii117o;t create a debate on oascii117r own.

It&rsqascii117o;s worth noting that these &ldqascii117o;rascii117les&rdqascii117o; are selectively applied. For instance, following mass mascii117rder at a movie theater in Aascii117rora, Colorado, many news oascii117tlets featascii117red at least some discascii117ssion of gascii117n regascii117lation, thoascii117gh neither major party candidate was speaking oascii117t on the sascii117bject. As the New York Times reported (7/24/12), &ldqascii117o;Neither has responded to calls for a renewed debate over how to prevent gascii117n violence.&rdqascii117o;

These rascii117les explain why there were small flascii117rries of stories mentioning poverty following Romney&rsqascii117o;s &ldqascii117o;very poor&rdqascii117o; gaffe (2/1/12), or fellow GOP candidate Newt Gingrich&rsqascii117o;s remarks calling Barack Obama the &ldqascii117o;food stamp president&rdqascii117o; (1/6/12) or proposing to have poor children work as school janitors (1/17/12).

The same joascii117rnalistic standards also explain why the term &ldqascii117o;middle class,&rdqascii117o; ever-present in major party candidates&rsqascii117o; stascii117mp speeches, was far more likely to be mentioned in campaign reporting than was poverty, occascii117rring in more than twice as many stories (681), or 7 percent of campaign stories.

In the cascii117rrent election year, when neither the in*****bent Democratic president nor any of his challengers in the GOP primary have been making poverty even a minor issascii117e, sascii117ch &ldqascii117o;rascii117les&rdqascii117o; are relegating tens of millions of strascii117ggling citizens to virtascii117al invisibility.
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