Earth First ! vs. the Tennessee Valley Authority : biases in the coverage of protest

The single most important role the media play is to present differing viewpoints on issues that affect a community. When the issue is complex, with a variety of opinions, newspapers still do the best job of providing in-depth explanation and analysis. Free from the need for sounbites and eye-catching footage, the print media is where the public expects to get "full" coverage. Journalism purists would have the public believe that reporters, in broadcast or print media, present each side of the issue completely and without bias. Media scholars have discovered a different pattern. This study analyzes, through interviews and an analysis of 32 newspaper articles, the accuracy and fairness with which regional newspapers covered a protest at the Tennessee Valley Authority's Watts Bar Nuclear Power Plant in the summer of 1994 staged by the radical environmental group Earth First!. The study also examines what biases were present in the coverage generated by the protest. A total of 12 interviewees included environmentalists from both Earth First! itself and from local activist organizations that also participated in the protest. Three representatives from TVA, all employees who were on the scene the day of the protest, also agreed to be interviewed, as did three representatives from the Rhea County Sheriff's Department. The newspapers included in the study were: The Knoxville News-Sentinel, the Daily Post-Athenian, the (Rhea County) Herald News, the Chattanooga Times, The Tennessean, The Oak Ridger, The Atlanta Constitution and USA Today. As expected, both of the focal camps, the protesters and TVA, had different interpretations of the day's events as well as the subsequent newspaper coverage of them. While TVA officials said they were content with the majority of the newspaper coverage, several protesters claimed that vital factors were missing from most print accounts: police abuse, necessary background information concerning the nuclear plant, etc. The conclusions generated by this study lend weight to the theory that mainstream organizations such as government and large corporations are the beneficiaries of media bias.