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Trump, Carrier, and the invisible worker -- The rise and fall of labor reporting -- The news media's shift to upscale audiences -- The changing news narrative about workers -- Workers and political voice -- "Job killers" in the news -- Rethinking news about American workers

This paper examines the evolution of a major national political controversy, how the media handled it, and how the authors participated in it. The controversy involved the community organizing group ACORN, which conservatives generally, and the Republican Party in particular, sought to demonize and weaken, before, during, and after the 2008 Presidential election, in order to undermine ACORN's voter registration efforts, help elect GOP candidates, and, after the election, delegitimize President Barack Obama and his liberal policy agenda. Interested in how the mainstream media, as well as the conservative echo chamber (TV and radio talk shows, blogs and websites, publications, and think tanks), reported and created a "controversy," the authors conducted a rigorous content analysis of media coverage of the ACORN, examining how the controversy got on the public agenda and, once there, how mainstream media "framed" the story in ways that reflected the conservative perspective. By the time the report was released in September 2009, the story had reached a peak and become a highly visible topic of national political debate. As a result, the authors became embroiled in the controversy — interviewed by media reporters, invited to discuss their report on TV and radio talk shows, and criticized by conservative publications and bloggers. The article reviews the controversy, the report's key findings, and how the authors negotiated their first-hand engagement in this "framing war."

Using the news controversy over the community group ACORN, we illustrate the way that the media help set the agenda for public debate and frame the way that debate is shaped. Opinion entrepreneurs (primarily business and conservative groups and individuals, often working through web sites) set the story in motion as early as 2006, the conservative echo chamber orchestrated an anti-ACORN campaign in 2008, the Republican presidential campaign repeated the allegations with a more prominent platform, and the mainstream media reported the allegations without investigating their veracity. As a result, the little-known community organization became the subject of great controversy in the 2008 US presidential campaign, and was recognizable by 82 percent of respondents in a national survey. We analyze 2007–2008 coverage of ACORN by 15 major news media organizations and the narrative frames of their 647 stories during that period. Voter fraud was the dominant story frame, with 55 percent of the stories analyzed using it. We demonstrate that the national news media agenda is easily permeated by a persistent media campaign by opinion entrepreneurs alleging controversy, even when there is little or no truth to the story. Conversely, local news media, working outside of elite national news media sources to verify the most essential facts of the story, were the least likely to latch onto the "voter fraud" bandwagon.

What do the news media identify as the problems, causes, and remedies when a corporate giant threatens two communities with an industrial plant closing that will displace thousands of workers? This article analyzes the narrative frames of national television and print news coverage following a December 1991 announcement by General Motors that it would close either its Arlington, Texas, or Willow Run, Michigan, assembly plant. The analysis extends through the eventual shutdown of the Willow Run plant, which affected more than 4,000 workers, and the continuing downsizing of the Arlington plant. News story texts commonly invoked a frame that suggests citizens have no choice but to adapt to difficult but necessary business decisions. The news stories ignored or discredited any democratic public action that challenged or offered alternatives to the plant closing and downsizing.