Wednesday, November 29th, 2006

Mainstream Media: Do you know what the unemployment rate is in the United States right now? It is 4.4%. This is the lowest the rate has been in five years. Economists consider 5% to be "full employment" because about 5% of the workforce is always transitioning between jobs. Furthermore, we have now had 38 consecutive months of job growth in the country.

Did you know any of that? It's really good news that indicates just how well the economy is. The 4.4% rate (down from 4.9% previously) was announced by the Bureau of labor statistics on November 3rd, the Friday before the election. But it received very little coverage from the mainstream media. Is that a coincidence? I think not.

I know that we on the conservative side of the political fence often decry the bias towards the left that we perceive the media to have. But now there is actually a study to back up that perception. The Washington based Center for Media and Public Affairs released the results of a study of election stories on the big three network (CBS, ABC, NBC) between labor day and October 22nd, 2006. The major findings of that study were as follows:

• 77% of on-air evaluations of Democratic candidates and members of Congress were positive whereas the same was true for only 12% of Republican counterparts.
• Coverage of the mid-term elections involved 167 stories this year versus only 35 stories during the same period in the 2002 mid-term elections.
• The Mark Foley scandal dominated election coverage with 59 stories compared to 33 on Iraq and 31 on terrorism/national security. No other issue was covered with more than 6 stories.
• Speaker Hastert was featured in 42 stories almost entirely related to the Foley issue. Senator Barack Obama (D-IL) was featured in 10 stories even though he was not up for election this year. Hillary Clinton's potential presidential run was featured in 9 stories. No other member of Congress was covered in more then 5 stories.

OK, so why do I bring this to your attention? First of all, it is pretty interesting. But also, it is additional confirmation that the mainstream media bias is not perceived. It is real. 77% positive versus 12% positive is a pretty dramatic difference. Writing about it is unlikely to change it. I don't think the networks reported on this study. We all just need to understand that it exists. Just like talk radio is overwhelmingly conservative, the mainstream media is largely left of center. When you watch the evening news, just remember that bias.

It's why we all need multiple information sources these days so that we can weigh the biases when forming our own opinions. I hope this e-mail is one of those sources for you. It is unquestionably biased because this is an opinion piece. But I hope you find the presentation reasoned and rational......and enjoyable to read.

Border Fence: The new incoming Chairman of the Homeland Security Committee (Bennie Thompson D-Miss.) said last week that he believes that the border fence, which is now in law and funded, needs to be "revisited." This is a clear signal that there will be an attempt to shorten or defund the fence in the early part of next year. We should not be going backwards on this proven method of controlling our border. These people who are proposing to have even less enforcement of our laws than we currently have will need to hear from the public on this issue in the future.

Football: OK, so this may be the most controversial statement I have made in a laptop report. But as a father of two current USC students, husband of an SC alumnus and SC graduate degree alumnus himself, wants to see the Trojans in the National Championship and beat Ohio State. So.......Go Trojans!!!!!

Until next week, I remain respectfully,

Congressman John Campbell

P.S. Yes, I'll save you the trouble of looking up my resume. My undergraduate degree is from UCLA. But the Bruins can't go to the national championship. And besides, there is little harmony in Congress. So, it's nice to have collegiate harmony at home.