[Announce] Study - "Job Killers" in the News: Claims without Verification

Sun Jun 17 08:01:20 CDT 2012

From: Peter Dreier <dreier at oxy.edu>

Colleagues:

Chris Martin and I just released this study, linked below, documenting the
media bias in reporting allegations (primarily by business and Republican
sources) that government policies to protect workers, consumers, and the
environment are “job killers.” Feel free to forward, tweet, and/or blog
about the study. Thanks.

Peter

------------------------------------------------------------------

Peter Dreier
Dr. E.P. Clapp Distinguished Professor of Politics
Chair, Urban & Environmental Policy Department
Occidental College
1600 Campus Road
Los Angeles, CA 90041
Phone: (323) 259-2913
FAX: (323) 259-2734
Website: http://employees.oxy.edu/dreier

Next book: The 100 Greatest Americans of the 20th Century: A Social
Justice Hall of
Fame<http://www.amazon.com/The-Greatest-Americans-20th-Century/dp/1568586817/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1334420440&sr=1-1>
*(Nation Books) - coming out in June 2012*

"The hottest places in hell are reserved for those who in times of great
moral crises maintain their neutrality" - Dante

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: June 14, 2012

Contact:

§ Peter Dreier, Ph.D., Occidental College, (323) 259-2913, dreier at oxy.edu

§ Christopher R. Martin, Ph.D., University of Northern Iowa, (319) 273-6118,
martinc at uni.edu
“Job Killer” Attacks against Obama Policies Spike Dramatically in the 
NewsStudy
Finds News Media Rarely Fact Check Republican/Business “Job Killer”
Allegations Targeting Government Policies

(*Los Angeles, CA & Cedar Falls, IA*) An independent study released by two
prominent scholars found that number of news stories with “job killer”
allegations have increased by 1,156% between the first three years of the
George W. Bush administration and the first three years of the Obama
administration.

The study, “Job Killers” in the News: Allegations without
Verification<http://go.madmimi.com/redirects/1339660859-c0466ceb2654e3b8739f7beb36a7991c-d94c9b6?pa=9880736615>,
by Professors Peter Dreier of Occidental College and Christopher R. Martin
of the University of Northern Iowa, revealed that the “job killer”
allegations came most often from Republican and business group sources, and
were targeted at policies to safeguard consumers, protect the environment,
raise wages, expand health insurance coverage, increase taxes on the
wealthy, and make workplaces safer.

Since the beginning of this presidential campaign season, there have been a
number of stories challenging Mitt Romney’s claims about the number of jobs
he created while at private equity firm Bain Capital. Criticisms started by
rival Republican candidates are now being echoed by Obama campaign. These
accusations—which deserve scrutiny by journalists, like any accusations—run
counter to major thrust of “job killer” allegations of the past 28 years.
Our study demonstrates that the vast majority of “job killer” allegations
from 1984 to 2011 have not been about corporate layoffs, but instead have
targeted government policies and Democratic proposals and emerged from
business and Republican sources.

Most significant is the study’s findings that in 91.6% of the stories
alleging that a government policy was a “job killer,” the news media failed
to cite any evidence for this claim.

“By failing to seek to verify allegations made about government policies
and proposals, the news media typically act more like a transmission belt
for business, Republican, and conservative sources than an objective seeker
of truth when it comes to the term ‘job killer’,” Dreier and Martin
reported.

The comprehensive study analyzes all stories in which the phrase “job
killer” appeared from 1984 to 2011 in four major news organizations—the
Associated Press, *New York Times*, the *Wall Street Journal*, and the
*Washington
Post*. A total of 381 stories written contained the phrase “job killer” and
its variations. The Associated Press news service had 115 stories, the New
York Times 55 stories, the Wall Street Journal 151 stories, and the
Washington Post 60 stories. These four influential media outlets set the
tone for the rest of the news media, influencing what appears on TV news,
radio talk shows, and the political blogosphere.

The study’s key findings include the following:

§ Media stories with the phrase “job killer” spiked dramatically after
Barack Obama was elected president, particularly after he took office. The
number of stories with the phrase “job killer” increased by 1,156% between
the first three years of the George W. Bush administration (16 “job killer”
stories) and the first three years of the Obama administration (201 “job
killer” stories).

§ The majority of the sources of stories using the phrase “job killer”
were business spokepersons and Republican Party officials. Republican
officials (41.7%) and business sources (18.6%) were responsible for 60.3%
of the "job killer" allegations. In 17% of the stories, news organizations
used the phrase in articles and editorials without attributing the phrase
to a source.

§ The Wall Street Journal was the most likely of the four news
organizations to deploy “job killer” as conventional wisdom, with no
attribution. The Wall Street Journal generated sourceless “job killer”
allegations in 45 stories (about 30% of its 151 total stories), the New
York Times did so in 8 stories (14.5% of its 55 stories), the Washington
Post 5 times (about 8% of its 60 stories), and the AP in 5 stories (about
4% of its 115 stories).

§ Most of the stories with the phrase “job killer” focused on federal
(65%) or state government (12%) policies to regulate business, including
environmental, tax, labor, and consumer protection measures. During the
28-year period, the top-ranked issues portrayed as “job killers” are 1) the
environment, including climate change, 2) tax policy, 3) health care
reform, and 4) wage laws (typically laws to raise the minimum wage).

§ In 91.6% of the stories alleging that a government policy was or would
be a “job killer,” the media failed to cite any evidence for this claim or
to quote an authoritative source with any evidence for this claim. With
little or no fact checking of “job killer” allegations, Americans have no
way to know if there is any evidence for these claims.

§ There is no correlation between the frequency of the phrase “job killer”
and unemployment rate. Instead, ”job killer” allegations correspond much
more closely with political cycles.

§ The “job killer” allegations can have a significant ripple effect across
the news media. For example, the Associated Press news feeds serve 1,700
newspapers and 5,000 television and radio news organizations in the U.S.,
and more internationally. A single allegation of “job killer” from a
significant news source can snowball into thousands of results in a Google
search. One 2010 AP story in which Republicans “slammed” a bill as a “job
killer,” yielded at least 12,800 web publications.

The full study is available at
www.uni.edu/martinc/jobkiller.html<http://go.madmimi.com/redirects/1339660859-97bd0e584406f1e7668adad85153b8a6-d94c9b6?pa=9880736615>.
Funding for the data collection portion of this study came from the Public
Welfare Foundation and the Ford Foundation.

*Peter Dreier, Ph.D.*, is the E.P. Clapp Distinguished Professor of
Politics, and chair of the Urban & Environmental Policy Department, at
Occidental College in Los Angeles. He is coauthor of several books on urban
policy and politics, including *Place Matters: Metropolitics for the 21st
Century* (University Press of Kansas), *Regions That Work: How Cities and
Suburbs Can Grow Together* (University of Minnesota Press), and *The Next
Los Angeles: The Struggle for a Livable City* (University of California
Press). His research has been published in the *Journal of Urban Affairs,
Harvard Business Review, Urban Affairs Review, Journal of the American
Planning Association, North Carolina Law Review, National Civic Review,
International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Media and Society*,
and other scholarly journals, as well as the *Columbia Journalism Review*.
His research has been funded by the Brookings Institution, Ford Foundation,
the Eisenhower Foundation, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban
Development, and other organizations.

*Christopher Martin, Ph.D.*, is Professor and Interim Head in Communication
Studies the University of Northern Iowa in Cedar Falls, Iowa. He is
co-author of *Media and Culture: An Introduction to Mass
Communication*(Bedford/St. Martin's), now in its 8th edition, and
author of
*Framed! Labor and the Corporate Media* (Cornell University Press). His
research has been published in *Journalism Studies, Communication Research,
Labor Research Journal, Journal of Communication, Perspectives on Politics,
Editor & Publisher, Z magazine*, the Huffington Post, and several edited
books. He is on the editorial board of the *Journal of Communication Inquiry
*.