Report: Coverage of Economy Heavily Skewed Towards Business

That's the conclusion of a new study from the Center for American Progress:

Included in this analysis is coverage by the Los Angeles Times, New York Times, U.S.A. Today, Wall Street Journal, and Washington Post--the five papers with the largest circulation nationwide--alongside the three major TV broadcast networks, ABC News, CBS News, and NBC News, as well as the three leading cable news networks, CNN, FOX News, and CNBC. The four economic issues were chosen because they represent a range of economic issues that impact ordinary citizens and that many citizens have defined opinions about. Following is a highlight of the report's findings:
Overall, representatives of business were quoted or cited nearly two-and-a-half times as frequently as were workers or their union representatives.
In coverage of both the minimum wage and trade, the views of businesses were sourced more than one-and-a-half times as frequently as those of workers.
In coverage about employment, businesses were quoted or cited over six times as frequently as were workers.
On only one issue that we examined, credit card debt, was coverage more balanced, presenting the perspectives of ordinary citizens in the same proportion as those of business.

I wonder how much of the results are being driven by the need for journalists to quote experts, who happen to work for, well, businesses.

Frankly, the results sound very dubious upon closer inspection. Here is a chart from the study which shows off the conclusion:

But it seems that the Center went through some length to separate business from non-business interests:

Sources were coded into the following categories: labor unions, businesses, other interest groups, ordinary workers or consumers, government or elected officials, and other. Government or elected officials were further categorized by their political party. Interest groups that directly represent businesses, such as the Chamber of Commerce, were counted as businesses.

So what happens when you change the groupings a bit to represent three factions: Business, Non-Business, and Government?

Where's that bias again?

(Hat tip: Chris Roush)

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