Categories: OLD Media Moves

Media downplay pay raise for nearly one-fifth of population

Hal Morris, writing on his GrumpyEditor.com blog, notes that the mainstream media underplayed the announcement earlier this week that cost-of-living increases had been given to those receiving Social Security benefits.

Morris writes, “An extensive survey of U.S. newspapers by Grumpy Editor uncovered few dailies yesterday placed the COLA story on front pages.

“Among those that did:

“The Washington Times, with the COLA for Social Security and SSI recipients as one of five front-page stories.

“The News Journal, Wilmington, Del., had it as one of four front-page pieces.

“The Garden Island, Lihue, Hawaii, made it one of four front-page stories.

“Others that ran the development as a front-page one-sentence “refer” to stories on inside pages included:

“The New York Times

“The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

“San Francisco Chronicle

“Austin American-Statesman

“The Salt Lake Tribune

“Among key dailies skipping any front-page mention:

“The Los Angeles Times, San Diego Union-Tribune, Denver Post, Hartford Courant, Washington Post, The Miami Herald, Tampa Tribune, Chicago Tribune, Chicago Sun-Times, The Indianapolis Star, South Bend (Indiana) Tribune, The Des Moines Register, The Times-Picayune (New Orleans), The Baltimore Sun, The Boston Globe, The Detroit News, Star Tribune (Indianapolis), Kansas City Star, Omaha World-Herald, The Star-Ledger (Newark), Albuquerque Journal, The Oklahoman, The (Portland) Oregonian, The Philadelphia Inquirer and The Dallas Morning News.

“And how did The Wall Street Journal treat it? The business paper combined the latest consumer price index (mentioned in a front-page refer) with the Social Security COLA information on page A6.”

Read more here.

Chris Roush

Chris Roush was the dean of the School of Communications at Quinnipiac University in Hamden, Connecticut. He was previously Walter E. Hussman Sr. Distinguished Professor in business journalism at UNC-Chapel Hill. He is a former business journalist for Bloomberg News, Businessweek, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, The Tampa Tribune and the Sarasota Herald-Tribune. He is the author of the leading business reporting textbook "Show me the Money: Writing Business and Economics Stories for Mass Communication" and "Thinking Things Over," a biography of former Wall Street Journal editor Vermont Royster.