Sunday, July 19, 2009

(Not Even) Equal Time

Hundreds of people rally for health care reform. Three dozen rally in opposition.

So which side gets more play in NECN's report?



Let's see: Counter-demonstrator Terren Bragdon gets the first word--for 16 seconds. He speaks up close, directly to a reporter. And then the shot cuts away to a tightly-edited montage of anti-reform placards while his commentary continues.

Then we get a mere 12 second chunk of Maine House Speaker Hannah Pingree's pro-reform speech from the podium. And then the anchor wraps things up.

Not exactly proportional representation.

Of course, the report characterizes reform legislation as, "government-run public-option health care reform." That tells you pretty much all you need to know about what NECN is up to here.

UPDATE: The PPH report puts the number of reform supporters at "about 500" and opponents at "about 25."

That's twenty-to-one.

1 comment:

Andre said...

Is that the same NECN recently acquired by Comcast? Ah, Comcast, on my top ten list of favorite companies. In 2002 I kicked Comcast (then called MediaOne)out of my house, never to return. Their average rate increases for the prior four years had been 10.4 % per year. I'm sure they're working for the common good!!!!!