RADIO TIDBITS

Fats implied that media bias is responsible for the lack of coverage about a new study relating exercise to incidence of breast cancer. Because the researchers found that "housework" reduces the risk in pre-menopausal women, Fats implied that fear of feminists (or some such) kept the media from widely reporting the finding.


In fact, the study was about exercise and found:

"The results suggest moderate physical activity may be important in reducing breast cancer risk in European women. "

Dr Lesley Walker, Cancer Research UK's director of cancer information, said: "We already know women who keep a healthy weight are less likely to develop breast cancer. This study suggests that being physically active may help reduce the risk and that something as simple as doing the housework can help."

(SOURCE: Lexis-Nexis, Hull Daily Mail, January 1, 2007)

Jerry Doyle mentioned that a Gallup poll found that a majority of Americans think the coverage of the Iraq War has been inaccurate:

Among this group, the majority says the inaccuracy is in the direction of presenting too negative a picture. Two-thirds of Republicans say the media's portrayal of the situation in Iraq is biased toward being too negative. The majority of Democrats say news coverage of Iraq is generally accurate.

After watching an ad, Gallup lets one get access to their premium content, so here's what I found:

Gallup asked the people who claimed the coverage was inaccurate exactly how it was inaccurate:

BASED ON 569 ADULTS WHO SAY THE NEWS MEDIA HAVE BEEN PROVIDING AN INACCURATE ACCOUNT OF THE SITUATION IN IRAQ

2006 Dec 18-20

Better than actually is 36%

Worse than actually is 61

No opinion 2

There is a HUGE partisan split among these people based on party affiliation:

Better than it is
DEMS 32%
IND 25%
GOP 5%

Worse than it is

DEMS 8%
IND 29%
GOP 67%


To sum up, 61% of Americans think the coverage is accurate OR makes Iraq look better than it really is, 35% think the coverage makes Iraq look worse than it is. The remaining 4% are either unsure (1%) or have no opinion (3%).