Knowing What News Neighborhood You're in When News and Public Relations Collide

February 12, 2014

One basic News Literacy concept is knowing which “News Neighborhood” you are in. Is the information you have found  reliable? Or is it masquerading as news -- but really something else, such as assertion, advertising or public relations? (click here to see how we define each of these “neighborhoods”) Knowing what news neighborhood you are in helps greatly in assessment and verification.

Here’s a case in point: the Employment Policies Institute, a widely quoted economic research center, regularly issues academic reports with an aura of objectivity. But as this front page New York Times article reveals, an unmentioned “web of industry ties” is behind the reports. The nonprofit EPI, it turns out, is run by a public relations firm that represents the restaurant industry.

The “Institute” is not alone, as the Times pointed out. Both conservative and liberal groups “are working in opaque ways to shape hot-button political debates,” through organizations with benign-sounding names -- “backed by corporate lobbyists and labor unions, with a potential payoff that can be in the millions of dollars for the interests they represent.”

The reports are a critical part of lobbying campaigns aimed at creating a deliberately deceptive “Washington echo chamber effect.” One anonymous lobbyist explains how it works: “Once you have the study, you can point it to it to prove your case — even if you paid to get it written.”

QUESTIONS:

• Using the News Neighborhoods taxonomy, define the "neighborhoods" that are highlighted in this story. Where are there overlaps? Where are the lines "blurred"?
• Who benefits from this "blurring of the lines"? How so?
• Are there other examples that you can think of where the lines are blurred in other pieces of media?
• What News Neighborhood are you in when considering the “academic reports” issued by the Employment Policies Institute and the Economic Policy Institute? Support your conclusion with evidence from the Times article and other sources.
• Based on the reports issued by the non-profit groups described in the article, do you think “increasing the minimum wage could be harmful, increasing poverty and unemployment,” or not? Why?
• Republican political consultant John Weaver is quoted as saying the deceptive practices described in the Times article are “at least disingenuous” if “not dishonest.” Do you agree or disagree? Why?
• Can you think of other stories that relate to this one on the same issue of the raising of the minimum wage that might be subject to more scrutiny? Another hot-button issue?

ADDITIONAL RESOURCES:

• The Employment Policies Institute website: http://www.epionline.org/
• The Economic Policy Institute website: A different institute, a different view - http://www.epi.org/
• The Center for Consumer Freedom: A different issue, a different non-profit - http://www.consumerfreedom.com/
• The National Restaurant Association on the minimum wage issue - http://www.restaurant.org/advocacy/All-Issues/Minimum-Wage/Overview
• Employment Policies Institute List of Studies - http://www.epionline.org/study_list/