HonestReporting CEO Daniel Pomerantz on February 9 appeared on the FOX News Rundown: Evening Edition podcast, during which he discussed HonestReporting’s research on media coverage of hate crimes in the United States.
Executive Summary
Jews are victims of more hate crimes per capita than all other groups in the United States, as tracked by the FBI. However, anti-Jewish hate crimes receive disproportionately little news coverage, by a disturbingly large margin. Hate crimes against Asian Americans, Americans with disabilities and members of the LGBTQ community are similarly underreported. By contrast, hate crimes against Muslims received the most news coverage of any group by a large margin and have begun to decline in recent years, indicating a possible correlation between adequate news coverage and increased safety for vulnerable populations.
Methodology
Our research was carried out using professional media intelligence tracking software and the FBI Hate Crime Statistics database. HonestReporting compared the incidence of hate crimes against specific groups in the US against the ensuing number of news reports produced about such attacks. The scope of our research covers the period from 2018 to 2020, with the latter year being the most recent for which comprehensive data is available.
We compared “anti-Jewish” hate crimes to discriminatory acts classified as “anti-Islamic (Muslim),” “anti-Black/African American,” “anti-Hispanic/Latino,” “anti-Asian,” as well as hate crimes against “persons with disabilities” and those targeting Americans because of their “sexual orientation”/”gender identity.” This information was analyzed based on the FBI’s Crime Data Explorer.
Our study focused on 18 top-tier mainstream media outlets and news wire services — The New York Times, the Associated Press, CNN, The Washington Post, ABC News, Agence France-Presse, CBS News, Foreign Policy, Fox News, HuffPost, The LA Times, MSNBC, NBC News, NPR, Reuters, Vice, Vox and The Wall Street Journal.
Results
* Note: group names are taken from the categories listed in the FBI Hate Crime Statistics database.
Additional Data and Backup
Conclusion
While Jews are one of the smallest minority groups in the US, they have been the targets of the most hate crimes per capita during the period 2018-2020. At the same time, anti-Jewish hatred produces, on average, minimal media coverage, along with hate crimes against Asian Americans, Americans with disabilities and members of the LGBTQ community.
By contrast, hate crimes against Muslims received the most news coverage of any group by a large margin. While further research is called for to prove causation, the correlative data seems to indicate that the media have an important role to play in reducing hate crimes against vulnerable groups.
Underlying Data
Additional References
- Texas Synagogue Attack Was Motivated By Antisemitism… But Apparently Not For The New York Times & BBC
- CNN Omits Any Reference to Huge Number of Hate Crimes Against US Jews in Article About FBI Report
- New York Times Ignores Historic Rates of US Antisemitism While Pushing Israel ‘Apartheid’ Canard
- Outrage as BBC Falsely Insinuates Victims of Antisemitic Attack Spread ‘Anti-Muslim Slur’
- Time for the Media to Adopt Antisemitism Definition
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