Content analysis of O'Reilly's rhetoric finds spin to be a 'factor'

[question everything]

Indiana University


Content analysis of O'Reilly's rhetoric finds spin to be a 'factor'
Commentator uses name-calling more than once every seven seconds in 'Talking Points Memo'

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
May 2, 2007

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. -- Bill O'Reilly may proclaim at the beginning of his program that viewers are entering the "No Spin Zone," but a new study by Indiana University media researchers found that the Fox News personality consistently paints certain people and groups as villains and others as victims to present the world, as he sees it, through political rhetoric. The IU researchers found that O'Reilly called a person or a group a derogatory name once every 6.8 seconds, on average, or nearly nine times every minute during the editorials that open his program each night.

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The same techniques were used during the late 1930s to study another prominent voice in a war-era, Father Charles Coughlin. His sermons evolved into a darker message of anti-Semitism and fascism, and he became a defender of Hitler and Mussolini. In this study, O'Reilly is a heavier and less-nuanced user of the propaganda devices than Coughlin.

Among the findings:

* Fear was used in more than half (52.4 percent) of the commentaries, and O'Reilly almost never offered a resolution to the threat. For example, in a commentary on "left-wing" media unfairly criticizing Attorney Gen. Alberto Gonzales for his role in the Abu Ghraib scandal, O'Reilly considered this an example of America "slowly losing freedom and core values," and added, "So what can be done? Unfortunately, not much."
* The researchers identified 22 groups of people that O'Reilly referenced in his commentaries, and while all 22 were described by O'Reilly as bad at some point, the people and groups most frequently labeled bad were the political left -- Americans as a group and the media (except those media considered by O'Reilly to be on the right).
* Left-leaning media (21.6 percent) made up the largest portion of bad people/groups, and media without a clear political leaning was the second largest (12.2 percent). When it came to evil people and groups, illegal aliens (26.8 percent) and terrorists (21.4 percent) were the largest groups.
* O'Reilly never presented the political left, politicians/government officials not associated with a political party, left-leaning media, illegal aliens, criminals and terrorists as victims. "Thus, politicians and media, particularly of the left-leaning persuasion, are in the company of illegal aliens, criminals, terrorists -- never vulnerable to villainous forces and undeserving of empathy," the authors concluded.

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Web Version:

http://newsinfo.iu.edu/news/page/normal/5535.html

[EFerrari]

1. There is no Constitutional right to use the public air waves for hatred.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=104&topic_id=5354030

[Selatius]

3. Unfortunately, Reagan axed the Fairness Doctrine

And everytime somebody tried to bring it back up, it gets axed again.

[Erika]

2. And it is Faux Noise n/t

[pepperbear]

4. color me shocked and awed. n/t