3,921
edits
Changes
Jump to navigation
Jump to search
m
The '''Center for Media and Public Affairs''' (CMPA) is a U.S.-based tax-exempt nonprofit [[501(c)(3)]] [[media watch]] organization. On its website, CMPA claims to be politically neutral: "The Center for Media and Public Affairs (CMPA) is a nonpartisan research and educational organization which conducts scientific studies of the news and entertainment [[media]]. CMPA election studies have played a major role in the ongoing debate over improving the election process."<ref>[http://www.cmpa.com/about.html "About the Center for Media and Public Affairs"], accessed February 2008.</ref>
CMPA also runs the [[Statistical Assessment Service]], described on the front page of its Web site as a sister [[Front groups|front organization]].
==History==
The Center for Media and Public Affairs was founded in the mid 1980s by [[S. Robert Lichter]] and [[Linda Lichter]].<ref name="Naureckas">Jim Naureckas, [http://www.fair.org/reports/lichter-memo.html Study of Bias or Biased Study?: The Lichter Method and the Attack on PBS Documentaries"], Fairness & Accuracy in Reporting, May 14, 1992.</ref>According to ''Salon.com'', "the seed money for [the] center was solicited by the likes of [[Pat Buchanan]] and [[Pat Robertson]]".<ref name="Conason">Joe Conason, [http://www.salon.com/news/letters/2003/01/15/letter/ "Letter: A question of bias"], ''Salon'', January 15, 2003.</ref>
==Funding==
* Smith Richardson Foundation - American Enterprise Institute, [[Hudson Institute]]
According to Salon journalist Joe Conason, who wrote a letter to Salon.com criticizing the center, the availability of this information does not indicate an openness on the part of the Center for Media and Public Affairs. In a Jan 2003 exchange of views with Lichter, Conason said "The IRS form 990 returns filed by [Lichter's] center redacts the names of all the individuals and organizations that contribute to it, thereby concealing them from public scrutiny. But the watchdogs at Media Transparency have collated the 990 returns filed by the conservative foundations, which disclose their contributions to Lichter's outfit."<ref name="Conason"/>
As at February 2008, the CMPA website contains no information about the Center's sources of funding.
===Staff===
* [[S. Robert Lichter]] - President. Until 2008 Robert Lichter was a paid contributor to the [[Fox News]] Channel; during the mid-1980's he held the DeWitt Wallace Chair in Mass Communication at the [[American Enterprise Institute]]; <ref>S. Robert Lichter, [http://www.ashbrook.org/events/lecture/1993/lichter.html "Is There a Liberal Bias in the Media?"], John M. Ashbrook Center for Public Affairs (Lecture), March 24, 1993.</ref> In addition, according to the CMPA website, he has taught at Princeton University, Georgetown University, George Washington University, and George Mason University, and he was a Postdoctoral Fellow in Politics and Psychology at Yale University, a Senior Research Fellow at Columbia University, and a National Endowment for the Humanities Fellow at Smith College.<ref>[http://cmpa.com/about_bio.htm "Staff Biographies"], Center for Media and Public Affairs website, accessed July 2009.</ref>
===Former Staff===
On February 1, 2008, CMPA issued a news release lauding the election coverage of [[Fox News]]. A CMPA concluded "FOX stands out for having the heaviest and most issue-oriented election coverage. ... FOX was also twice as substantive as the broadcast networks. Almost one-third of all stories on FOX (30%) dealt with policy issues, nearly double the proportion (16%) on the networks. FOX also carried less coverage of the horse race and candidate tactics than any of broadcast networks."<ref>Center for Media and Public Affairs, [http://www.cmpa.com/election%20news%202_1_08.htm "Media Boost Obama, Bash "Billary": NBC Is Toughest on Hillary; FOX Has Heaviest Coverage"], Media Release, February 1, 2008.</ref>
==Criticism of Attack on PBS in 1992==
According to a [[Fairness & Accuracy In Reporting]] (FAIR) research memo, a 1992 study of [[PBS]] by the Center for Media and Public Affairs concluded: "On the social and political controversies addressed by PBS documentaries across a full year of programs, the balance of opinion tilted consistently in a [[liberal]] direction."<ref name="Naureckas"/>
According to the FAIR memo, these shows were the ones "most often criticized for having a conservative slant - programming that takes up more of the PBS schedule than the documentaries that the Center's study is limited to. ''Firing Line'' and ''American Interests'' - programs underwritten by the Center's biggest funders--provided approximately 50 hours of programming a year between them."<ref name="Naureckas"/>
==Criticism of Attack on Fahrenheit 9/11==
In June 2004, the CMPA's media director, [[Matthew Felling]], waded into the debate on [[Michael Moore]]'s [[Fahrenheit 9/11]] with the following comments: "Of course, this movie is going to be Michael Moore's version of what he thinks President Bush is up to and what he thinks his capabilities are," he said. "We already know that he does not think that he is really cut out for the job. So Michael Moore will pick out everything he can to support that argument and we can only hope that Americans are well-versed enough in the successes of the Bush administration that they can balance it out on their own."<ref>J. Malone, "New Michael Moore film fahrenheit 9/11 sparks controversy", ''Voice of America'', June 22, 2004. (No longer available online).</ref>
*[http://www.mediatransparency.org/recipientgrants.php?573 Information on CMPA's funding sources at mediatransparency.org]
* [http://www.stats.org STATS website]
*"[http://www.salon.com/politics/conason/2002/12/18/bush/index.html Joe Conason's Journal]", *''Salon.com'', Dec. 18, 2002. Article questioning the neutrality of the Center for Media and Public Affairs.*"[http://www.salon.com/news/letters/2003/01/15/letter/ Letter: A question of bias]", ''Salon.com'', Jan. 15, 2003. An exchange of views between Robert Lichter and Joe Conason about the CMPA's neutrality.
* FAIR Research Memo, "[http://www.fair.org/reports/lichter-memo.html Study of Bias or Biased Study? The Lichter Method and the Attack on PBS Documentaries]", May 14, 1992
[[Category:Foundations]][[Category:Media]][[Category:Organizations]]
[[Category:United States]]
