Should you relied completely on broadcast or liberal cable networks in your information, you’d doubtless be shocked to study that Florida’s recently-passed training legislation was not formally titled, “the Don’t Say Homosexual legislation.” An MRC evaluation discovered that TV networks nearly completely referred to the legislation by this politically-charged epithet, with most shops solely utilizing the legislation’s official title — “Parental Rights in Schooling” — one or two occasions prior to now months.
MRC analysts examined all broadcast (ABC, CBS, NBC) and liberal cable (CNN, MSNBC) protection of Florida’s newest training legislation between February 1 and April 28. Throughout that point, we discovered 230 situations during which anchors, analysts, and contributors referred to the legislation because the “Don’t Say Homosexual” invoice, however solely 18 instances the place they used its official title — the “Parental Rights in Schooling” invoice.
MSNBC led the pack with 88 makes use of of the Democratic Social gathering’s most well-liked label, and a paltry two makes use of of the invoice’s official title. CNN repeated the “Don’t Say Homosexual” phrasing 75 occasions, and used the “Parental Rights” language solely eight occasions.
NBC was essentially the most slanted of the published networks, with 33 situations of the “Don’t Say Homosexual” label, and only one case during which the official title was used. For CBS, the breakdown was 18-to-one, and for ABC, it was a comparatively extra balanced 16-to-six.
Broadcast networks nearly at all times famous that “Don’t Say Homosexual” was the phrasing adopted by the invoice’s critics. CNN additionally typically caught to this rule, with solely a handful of exceptions. The identical can’t be mentioned of MSNBC, the place hosts and contributors alike habitually used the Democrats’ label as if it have been the invoice’s official title:
Labelling generally is a very efficient technique of controlling political discourse, and it’s one the media use frequently. By relying nearly completely on the Democrats’ framing, the media are conditioning their audiences to react negatively to this laws.
