IRS lost emails recovered?

IRS Director of Exempt Organizations Lois Lerner being sworn in before testifying to the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee May 22, 2013 in Washington, DC. The committee was investigating allegations that the IRS targeted conservative non-profit organizations for additional scrutiny. (Photo: Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

Example of Media Bias:

Despite a combined eight hours of air time on Wednesday, all three network morning shows ignored the revelation that 6400 “lost” e-mails from ex-IRS official Lois Lerner have been found.

ABC’s Good Morning America, NBC’s Today and CBS This Morning all avoided this development. Instead, the networks made time for frivolous, unimportant topics. Rather than focus on an attempt to cover-up government targeting of conservative groups:

  • ABC’s Good Morning America devoted four minutes to this: “Stranded on a deserted Island: Four keys to staying alive.”
  • CBS This Morning offered two segments, totaling eight minutes and 19 seconds to comedian John Oliver.
  • NBC’s Today allowed six minutes and 17 seconds for Tina Fey and her new Netflix sitcom.

CNN.com reported the latest details of the IRS case:

The IRS watchdog investigating the disappearance of Lois Lerner’s emails told a Senate committee it has found roughly 6,400 messages that have never before been turned over to Congress.

Lerner was the IRS official at the center of allegations that the agency targeted tea party groups applying for nonprofit status. Congress requested Lerner’s emails from the IRS and agency officials told lawmakers an unknown number of emails had been lost when Lerner’s computer crashed.

The Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration is in the process of turning the emails over to the Senate Finance Committee, which is investigating whether the IRS wrongly targeted conservative and other groups seeking tax-exempt status, committee spokesman Aaron Fobes said.

“These emails will be carefully examined as part of the committee’s bipartisan IRS investigation,” he said.

Also, a March study by the Media Research Center found that the networks have been ignoring the latest developments on the IRS scandal. As of March 4, ABC hadn’t touched the story in ten months. …

Identifying Media Bias

To accurately identify different types of bias, you should be aware of the issues of the day, and the liberal and conservative perspectives on each issue.

Types of Media Bias:

Questions

1.  What types of bias is the excerpt an example of?

2.  Why do you think the networks chose to ignore this astonishing news story about the IRS’s targeting of private citizens?


Scroll down to the bottom of the page for the answers.

Answers

1.  The excerpt is an example of bias by omission and story selection.

2.  Opinion question. Answers vary.


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