Mere reflection or real bias? An analysis of guests on "Nightline", "MacNeil /Lehrer", and "This Week with David Brinkley"

This research examines news interview guests and their treatment on three of the leading news interview programs, Nightline, The MacNeil/ Lehrer NewsHour, and This Week with David Brinkley. It presents statistical evidence in support of the proposition that the leading television news interview programs practice preferential selection and treatment of news interview guests. Labor representatives appeared on these programs less frequently, spoke later both in news interview segments and in the program overall, were interviewed alone less often, and were given shorter interviews than guests from business and professional occupations. This research also presents case study evidence of selection and treatment bias. The selection case studies resolve a key problem with previous efforts to answer the reflection defense of the news media against charges of bias. They demonstrate that guest selection depends upon who defines the news, rather than the abstract goal of reflection. If different selectors perform guest selection, the result is a different type of guest being selected. The treatment case studies provide compelling evidence of some of the conditions under which differential treatment is both likely and unlikely to occur. Differential treatment in news interviews appears more likely when labor and business representatives are on opposite sides of an issue, when labor representatives challenge other guests in the same interview segment, and when interviews are conducted with high-level labor union officials. Such treatment appears less likely when labor and business representatives appear together on the same side of an issue, when interviews deal with late-breaking news events, and when lead-in news reports clearly favor one side over the other.