Midwest News Index - 2006-2007
Midwest reform groups call on FCC to hold TV broadcasters accountable for inadequate election and government coverage
Midwest local TV newscasts devote 2.5 times as much air time to political ads as election coverage, study finds
Midwest local TV newscasts average 36 seconds of election coverage in typical 30-minute broadcast
Between October 2006 and June 2007, the MDN and the NewsLab at the University of Wisconsin-Madison jointly released three studies analyzing the volume and quality of local television news coverage of elections and government. The Midwest News Index reports were based on analyses of one hour of the early- and late-evening local news broadcasts on 36 NBC, CBS, ABC and FOX affiliates in the largest media market and state capital city in Illinois, Michigan, Minnesota, Ohio and Wisconsin.
Midwest News Index Report 1 - October 2006
In the month following the traditional Labor Day kickoff of the 2006 election campaign season, television stations in the nine Midwest markets devoted an average of 36 seconds to election coverage during the typical 30-minute local news broadcast. By contrast, the same broadcasts typically contained more than 10 minutes of advertising, more than seven minutes of sports and weather, and almost two and a half minutes of crime stories.
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Midwest News Index Report 2 - November 2006
In the final month leading up to the 2006 elections, local television news viewers in the target markets received considerably more information about the campaigns from paid political advertisements than from actual news coverage. In seven markets, local newscasts aired nearly four and a half minutes of paid political ads during the typical 30-minute broadcast while dedicating an average of one minute and 43 seconds to election news coverage. This analysis also revealed that most of the actual news coverage of elections was devoted to campaign strategy and polling, which outpaced reporting on policy issues by a margin of over three to one (65 percent to 17 percent).
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Midwest News Index Report 3 - June 2007
An analysis of local TV news coverage of “government” in the nine targeted Midwest media markets between January 1 and March 31, 2007 found that stations dedicated just one minute and 35 seconds to government news during a typical early- and late-evening 30-minute broadcast – and that included government at all levels. In contrast, five times more airtime was spent on “sports and weather.” “Teasers, bumpers, and intros” also trumped government coverage at nearly 2 minutes.
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FCC Advocacy - June 2007
On June 12, 2007, 16 MDN affiliated groups submitted a report summarizing the findings of the 2006 and 2007 MNI studies to the Federal Communications Commission. These reports also were delivered to the congressional delegations representing the Great Lake region, and members of the House and Senate committees with jurisdiction over telecommunications issues. An MDN statement accompanying the report urged the FCC to clarify and enforce the public interest obligations of broadcasters before the transition from analog to digital broadcasting is completed in February 2009. The MDN also requested that the Commission conduct a public hearing on these and related issues in the Midwest - a request that was positively acknowledged within 24 hours. A month later, 14 MDN affiliates joined 14 other public interest groups from across the country in filing comments with the FCC that once again called upon the agency to address the documented failure of local television news to cover politics, government and public affairs. At a Chicago public hearing attended by all the FCC commissioners on September 20, the MDN, represented by Cindi Canary of the Illinois Campaign for Political Reform, laid out the arguments for stronger and enforceable public interest obligations.
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