Media Bias in Obituaries

Media bias is a topic that interests me greatly because how the media frames issues is one of the things that drives public opinion and politics. For example, is there any question a junior senator from Illinois with virtually no experience or qualifications could be elected president without the mainstream media serving virtually as his de facto campaign? A recent, clear demonstration of the media's preference for the Democratic Party is observable in the comparative obituaries presented for Strom Thurmond and Robert Byrd.

In the obituary for Strom Thurmond, a Republican senator from South Caroline, the New York Times seeks to frame the man's life in terms of his 1948 presidential bid, which the newspaper characterizes as driven by segregation rather than state's rights (arguably, probably both motives). For the Democrat Byrd, a senator from West Virginia, the New York Times buries the fact that he was a former Klansman and seems to offer an embarrassed apology - the implication being that as long as one is a Democrat, any many of personal malfeasance is acceptable.

Both men filibustered a civil rights bill. Mr. Thurmond did so in 1957, well before the country become enlightened after the efforts of Dr. Martin Luther King and others. The paper puts this in the fifth graf of Thurmond's obituary. Mr. Byrd filibustered the Civil Rights Act of 1964 - thank landmark legislation passed seven years after Mr. Thurmond's actions. The same paper buried this fact in graf 16.

Two men. One arguably a racist the other clearly so. Yet despite that fact, their respective party affiliations cause the New York Times to treat each remarkably differently.