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Media Bias?: A Comparative Study of Time, Newsweek, The National Review, and The Progressive Coverage of Domestic Social Issues, 1975-2000, by Tawnya J. Adkins Covert and Philo C. Wasburn. Lanham, MD: Lexington Books, 2009. 161pp. $26.95 paper. ISBN: 9780739121900.
Thirty years ago, the sociologist Herbert J. Gans studied the processes of news selection and presentation at CBS, NBC, Newsweek, and Time. "Ideologists are not wanted by the news media," Gans wrote, "for most journalists believe ideology to be an obstacle to story selection and production." Gans published this statement not too long after the end of the Watergate political scandal and the Vietnam War. His words undoubtedly brought jeers and sneers from those conservatives who blamed a liberal news media for military failure in Vietnam and the resignation of President Richard M. Nixon.
Now, two sociologists have extended research into the presentation of news with a comprehensive examination of articles seen in the two largest American weekly newsmagazines and two venerable journals of opinion during the presidencies of Gerald Ford through Bill Clinton. Their conclusions about presentations by Newsweek and Time of information concerning crime, environment, gender, and poverty affirm the statement by Gans: neither newsmagazine was an ideologue, but each was almost centrist; and although both newsmagazines were slightly liberal,...