No Bias In The Media, “Not Even a Smidgen”

Sometimes you just stumble upon things that jump out at you.

This blogger was looking for a reference to the president’s recent interview with Bill O’Reilly in which he said there was “not even a smidgen of corruption” in the IRS.

Putting aside the fact that it would be nearly impossible for a bureaucratic organization the size of the IRS to be devoid of even the tiniest bit of corruption, what stood out for this blogger was the result of a search for the story.

Arguably, when the President of the United States grants an interview to a major news outlet, one would think a comment like this would merit some coverage, by other than just that news outlet.

Strangely, other than Fox News, Glen Beck’s The Blaze, and some conservative blog sites, per google search results, there is no mention of this by other media, other than one link to a Washington Post blog.

Page one of the search results:

1. News for not a smidgen of corruption irs obama

   

   Washington Post (blog)

   1. Way more than a smidgen: Voters say IRS corrupt

      Fox News ‎- 2 days ago

      They smell a rat – On Super Bowl Sunday, President Obama famously told Bill O’Reilly that there was “not even a smidgen of corruption” in the …
   1. The Insiders: The IRS, the Democrats’ cat’s paw

      Washington Post (blog)‎ – 2 days ago

2. ‘Not even a smidgen of corruption‘: Obama downplays IRS, other …

   www.foxnews.com/…/not-even-smidgen–corruption–o…‎

   Fox News Channel

   Feb 3, 2014 – President Obama, in an interview with Fox News’ Bill O’Reilly, tried to put behind him the scandals that have hung over his second term, …

3. ‘Not even a SMIDGEN of corruption‘: Obama DOUBLES DOWN on …

   dailycaller.com/…/not-even-a-smidgen-of-corruption–ob…‎

   The Daily Caller

   Feb 2, 2014 – President Obama again denied that the IRS purposefully targeted Tea Party groups — claiming there was ‘not even a SMIDGEN of corruption‘ …

4. Obama on IRS Scandal: “Not Even A Smidgen Of Corruption” | Video

   ►►

   www.realclearpolitics.com/…/obam…‎

   RealClearPolitics

   Feb 2, 2014

   O’REILLY: Bone-headed decisions. But no mass corruption? OBAMA: Not even mass corruption. Not even …

5. Obama: ‘Not a smidgen‘ of IRS corruption – WorldNetDaily

   www.wnd.com/…/obama–not-a-smidgen-of-irs–corruptio…‎

   WorldNetDaily

   Rating: 5 – ‎110 votes

   Feb 4, 2014 – Obama: ‘Not a smidgen‘ of IRS corruption. President now claims tax agency not targeting conservatives. Published: 02/04/2014 at 9:41 PM.

6. Obama: ‘Not Even a Smidgen of Corruption‘ in IRS Targeting of …

   www.breitbart.com/…/Obama–Not-Even-A-Smidgen-of-Co…‎

   Breitbart.com

   Feb 2, 2014 – In a pregame Super Bowl interview, President Barack Obama told Fox News’s Bill O’Reilly that there was “not even a smidgen of corruption“ …

7. Obama: Not Even a Smidgen of Corruption at IRS – The Foundry

   blog.heritage.org/…/obama-even-smidgen–corruptio…‎

   Heritage Foundation

   Feb 3, 2014 – President Obama says there is “not even a smidgen of corruption” at the IRS despite the recent targeting of Tea Party and conservative groups.

8. Watch Gowdy Bring the Pain: Congressman Blasts Obama’s Claim …

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   www.ijreview.com/…/113439-congressman-trey-go…‎

   8 hours ago

   The Congressman directly questions President Obama’s statement that “not a smidgen” of corruption occurred …

9. Obama: No Corruption, No Political Motivations in IRS Scandal …

   townhall.com/…/obama–no–corruption–no-political-motiva…‎

   Townhall.com

   Feb 7, 2014 – The scheme offered not even “a smidgen” of corruption he asserted, adding another layer to the White House’s previous assurances that the …

10. Obama Says There’s “not even a smidgen of corruption” in the IRS

    www.thedailysheeple.com/relax-conservatives-obama-says-theres-not-ev…‎

    Feb 9, 2014 – We can all rest easier: Obama denies that any corruption is taking place at the IRS – it was all because of Fox News.

Five pages into the results, a related article from the WSJ appears amongst the conservative blogs.

Interestingly enough, the story was apparently covered, at least minimally by cbsnews.com.  If you change your google search query (site: cbsnews.com “not even a smidgen of corruption” IRS Obama) to require that the links come from cbsnews.com, it does appear… in one link.

Changing cbsnews.com to nbcnews.com yields half a dozen links, for abcnews.com it’s one link.  According to google, cnn.com didn’t cover the story.

Assuming that google’s algorithms are a legitimate proxy for gauging the relative significance of content on a particular site, and that google ranks what appears on websites based at least somewhat on the reputation of the site as well as the relative emphasis on the subject matter in a given article, the results that show up are indicative of the level of coverage offered by the various media outlets.

One would expect Fox News, as a major and most-watched news network to rank highly in these results.  After all, Bill O’Reilly did the interview.   For that reason alone, the network could be expected to cover the story more heavily than it’s competitors.  What is interesting is that none of the other new outlets even show up in the generic search.  Furthermore, even niche blog sites show up in the results, while CBS, ABC, NBC, and CNN are notably absent.