Cable News: The Fiscal Cliff Is 142 Times More Important Than the Violence Against Women Act

[Tx4obama]

Cable News: The Fiscal Cliff Is 142 Times More Important Than the Violence Against Women Act

The issues surrounding violence against women never get the attention they deserve from the media, let alone the right kind of attention, but the disparity between two competing legislative priorities brings that fact into sharp relief. While the negotiations over the looming so-called “fiscal cliff” are of unquestionable political importance, they have seemingly blotted out the sun on cable news. By contrast, the Violence Against Women Act, which must be reauthorized before the end of this Congress, has largely been ignored.

The fiscal cliff has dominated cable news coverage since President Obama‘s reelection, but it’s not as if they don’t find time to cover anything else, and you would think that an issue like the Violence Against Women Act, which requires urgent action, and dovetails with other recent news stories, would receive at least a significant fraction of the coverage, say 10%, or maybe 5%? You would be wrong.

A search of the TV Eyes television transcription database shows that, since last Wednesday, the term “fiscal cliff” has been used, on cable television, 4,679 times, while the Violence Against Women Act has been mentioned… 33 times. Twelve of those were from MSNBC, twenty were on C-Span, and Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Il) mentioned it once on Fox News. Just to give you some idea, during that same timeframe, sportscaster Bob Costas, who made headlines by commenting on the murder of Kasandra Perkins by Kansas City Chiefs linebacker Jovan Belcher almost two weeks ago, merited 213 mentions, nearly seven times as many. Even imaginary violence gets much more attention, as the phrase “War On Christmas” scored 76 mentions since last Wednesday.

Jovan Belcher’s murder of Kasandra Perkins, and subsequent suicide, provoked some discussion of domestic violence, but that was largely drowned out by gun control and outrage at Bob Costas. It’s a little early to tell if the story of Patrick Moran‘s guilty plea on charges of assaulting his girlfriend, and Rep. Jim Moran‘s (D-VA) sick enabling of, and covering for, his son’s behavior, will penetrate to the broader political media, but like the fiscal cliff, the Violence Against Women Act shouldn’t need some supplemental news peg to make it worthy of conversation.

-snip-

Full article here: http://www.mediaite.com/tv/cable-news-the-fiscal-cliff-is-142-times-more-important-than-the-violence-against-women-act/

A Good Read.

[RC]

1. The Fiscal Cliff is that current shiny thing to detract us. And big money boys are involved.

The only money involved in violence against women is paying the people to patch her up and occasionally in prosecuting the perpetrator.

Next question?

[hr]
The reality is The Fiscal Cliff is nothing more than a construct from the "All Fear, All The Time" gang. What do they care about women, or any of us for that matter, beyond money?