03/18/2011: ""Anti-government" and biased reporting"

While listening to CBC radio today, there was a report about the anti-government protesters in Yemen. The implication is that the people are protesting against being governed. In reality, they are demanding simply a change in government, not an absence of it.

This raises an interesting bit of media political bias, though.

Search for "yemen anti-government protests": 2,930,000 hits. Search for "yemen protests": 5,890,000 hits (all counts from Google). So, roughly 50% of the hits on the Yemen protests mention "anti-government".

However, substitute "Wisconsin" for "Yemen" and the situation changes: 2,150,000 out of 10,700,000 hits mention "anti-government", a rate of only 20%

Clearly, the people in Wisconsin are protesting against the current government, and would be happier with different governance (ie pro-union support). So why are the protests in Yemen (and Egypt, and Libya) reported as more anti-government than the protests in Wisconsin?

Please note, I employ some fairly aggressive spam filters to kill bad comments and even ban posters. I do however receive copies of all comments posted, even if you get blocked. Any valid post that is blocked will be reinstated as soon as I can, and I will send the poster an email (if possible).

Bruce Guenter's Thoughts

Random musings about stuff that crosses my path.

03/18/2011: ""Anti-government" and biased reporting"