Wednesday, August 26, 2009

Perception

Capitalism seems to have an image problem:
In 2006, the Business & Media Institute, an arm of the Media Research Council designed to expose the "anti-free enterprise culture of the media," released a report, "Bad Company," that examined the portrayal of businessmen on TV's top-rated dramas during the sweeps weeks of May and November 2005. "On primetime television, victims were 21 times more likely to be kidnapped or murdered by businessmen than the mob," the report states. "Businessmen also committed crimes five times more often than terrorists and four times more often than street gangs." Of the 129 episodes BMI reviewed, 39 featured businessmen as primary characters or plots alluding to commerce. According to BMI's reviewers, 77 percent of these 39 episodes qualified as "anti-business."
I've noticed that oil and pharmaceutical companies seem to be especially frequent villains.

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