How bias shapes the news: Challenging The New York Times' status as a newspaper of record on the Middle East
Abstract
This article addresses bias in the American press and shows how the inevitability of reporting from a point of view challenges the possibility of a newspaper of record on the Middle East. Examining 30 days of coverage of the Intifada, it both shows that coverage of events varied across three mainstream US newspapers – The New York Times, The Washington Post and Chicago Tribune – and demonstrates that in the case of the newspaper most often called a newspaper of record – The New York Times – coverage varied in distinct ways from other mainstream newspapers. The article thus considers how the Times' reputation and influence converge with its record in creating a broader impression about the perspective of the US press on the Middle East.
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1 The study derives from the findings of an internal report commissioned by the Jewish Federation of Metropolitan Chicago and completed in October 2001. The 30 days of coverage were chosen because they were thought to reflect key events occurring within the time period of the renewed Intifada. ‘Key events’ were defined as events of noticeable import for both sides of the conflict that produced two-to-three day surges in journalistic coverage. These included Ariel Sharon's Temple Mount visit (29–30 September), the shooting of Mohammed Aldura and his father in Gaza (1–3 October), the lynching of Israeli soldiers in Ramallah (13–15 October), an explosion in a Jerusalem food market (3–5 November), the Israeli elections (5–7 February), a Netanya car bombing (5–6 March), the release of the Mitchell report (4–7 May), and a Tel Aviv disco bombing (2–4 June). Additionally, the first 12 days of the conflict (29 September–10 October) were analyzed in detail. All told, the analysis included a total of 577 separate cases – including 252 textual items, 315 photographs, eight cartoons and three photographic stand-alones. Coding was initiated by identifying and operationalizing 21 separate variables, of which more than half (12) referred to possible sources of bias. The other nine variables addressed journalistic conventions. With the exception of square inches, all variables represent nominal data. After achieving inter-coder reliability, two coders independently analyzed the data by splitting the sample material across newspaper and time period. Inter-coder reliability was achieved by selecting a reliability sample slightly greater than 20 percent of the general sample. The two coders for this study achieved Holsti reliability of .80 or greater for all but one variable, which achieved a Holsti reliability of .79.
2 When historical explanations were displayed in the coverage, they tended to have an either–or quality that reduced interpretation of the current situation to the contexts of former ones. For instance, the Palestinians called the Intifada the ‘renewed’, ‘second’ or ‘al-Aksa’ Intifada, positioning it as a continuation of hostilities that occurred during the late eighties, while the Israelis forwarded a notion that the Intifada was a continuation of the War of Independence. All three newspapers downplayed the possibility of competing contexts.
3 The decision to use square inches instead of column-inches was based on the capacity to develop a standardized measure that could be equally applied across newspapers and across features, including texts, graphics and photographs.
4 On this variable, the Tribune differed markedly from the Times, especially during the first 12 days of the conflict, when the Tribune photos were four times as likely to depict Israel as the aggressor (45 percent to 11 percent depicting Palestinian aggression). During that same time period, the Tribune also showed proportionately more pictures of Israeli violence (24 percent) and fewer pictures of Palestinian violence (13 percent) than did either of the other newspapers (Times – 24 percent, Post – 23 percent).
5 Briefly, the Tribune relied more on anonymous Palestinian sources and a higher percentage of high-ranking Israeli sources than did the other papers, positioned Israelis and Palestinians as aggressors equally in its headlines, displayed slightly more photographs of Palestinians, and was the only paper of the three to display more photos of Palestinians than of Israelis. Its photographs were more likely to depict Israeli culpability than Palestinian and it showed proportionately fewer pictures of Palestinian-instigated violence than did the Times. The Post displayed features that were similar to both those of the Times and Tribune but on key points it followed the Tribune more closely: it was two times as likely as the Timesto focus on Israeli-instigated violence in its lead paragraphs, displayed equal numbers of photos of Israeli and Palestinian culpability, used headlines that equally positioned Israelis and Palestinians as aggressors, and used eventcentered maps. The Post differed from both the Times and Tribune in that it relied on high-ranking and named US/other sources in its stories, making it more likely to run stories that relied exclusively on US/other stories. It is difficult to divine any clear bias in conjunction with all the features at work here but it is important to note that the Post resembled the Tribune on most of its key points of difference from the Times, suggesting the wide-spread lodging of bias in all features of news presentation.
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