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• analogies to Nazi Germany;
• extreme characterizations of an opponent (e.g., opponents as “barbarians” or a “mob”);
• use of the language of violence (including Governor Perry’s mock threat to get “ugly” with Fed Chair Ben Bernanke if he were to go to Texas after pursuing loose monetary policy and Teamster leader Jimmy Hoffa’s call to “take these sons of bitches out”);
• extreme characterizations of legislation (including the notion that senior citizens would die under the opposing side’s health plan);
• allegations that the president of an opposing party had lied (Rep. Wilson’s “You lie,” and statements by Democrats on the Floor of the House alleging that President George W. Bush had lied);
• dismissive or demeaning references to the president (i.e., calling President George W. Bush a “loser,” and President Obama “kind of a dick”).
• dismissive or demeaning references to others (e.g., labeling a female lobbyist a “K street whore,” and a female senator a “hooker,” characterizing First Lady Michelle Obama’s behavior as “uppity-ism,” or Newt Gingrich as a “fat, repulsive pig!”
• when the level of coverage of one side’s example was substantially greater than that of the other, we paired the more frequently covered single instance (e.g., Rep. Wilson “You lie”) with multiple instances of a less covered parallel on the other (Democrats accusing President Bush of lying). We did the same by pairing a more frequently covered Democratic representative’s statement that the uninsured would die under the Republican health care plan (i.e., Rep. Grayson) with multiple instances of Republicans making the same sort of statement.

• Non-traditional media have increased both the amount of accessible uncivil communication and the amount of access to what exists elsewhere.

Almost half of the 38 studied instances occurred in non-traditional media. Six occurred on talk radio, seven on cable networks, and three in email or on the web (see Table 2).

• We found agreement across the cable networks that comparisons to Hitler, Goebbels, Nazis, or the Holocaust were out of bounds.

• Overall, MSNBC features conservative transgressions more often than liberal ones, and Fox does the opposite (see Table 3). As a result, MSNBC viewers witnessed a greater number of conservative outbursts, while FOX viewers saw more outrageous rhetoric tied to the left. In general, MSNBC and FOX’s coverage of these instances magnified the sense that incivility in contemporary political discourse was the fault of those on the other side of the ideological divide. By contrast, CNN was more likely than either MSNBC or FOX to flag transgressions on both sides.

Where Obama-Hitler analogies were more likely to be decried on MSNBC and CNN, Nazi analogies and threats against Republican Governor Walker were more often critiqued on Fox.

Where a FOX viewer was more likely to learn that Democrat Alan Grayson had labeled an advisor to Federal Reserve Chairman Bernanke a “K Street whore,” the viewer tuned to MSNBC was more likely to hear that Glenn Beck had characterized Democratic Senator Mary Landrieu as a hooker.

The differences between FOX and MSNBC are significant and can be predicted by knowing the ideology of the transgressor.

• Unsurprisingly, cable networks don’t publicize untoward comments by their own correspondents. It was FOX that reminded viewers about MSNBC host David Shuster’s suggestion that Chelsea [Clinton] was “sort of being pimped out in some weird sort of way” by the Hillary Clinton campaign. CNN highlighted Mark Halperin’s observation on MSNBC that President Obama came off as “kind of a dick” at a press conference. MSNBC reminded viewers that a FOX host had used the phrase “terrorist fist jab” to describe a gesture between Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama and his wife at a 2008 campaign stop.

• Not featured in the analyzed cable representations of incivility was the question, “How typical is the other side’s uncivil behavior and language?" As a result, repeated play of single instances of rude, crude, or lewd political language and behavior probably makes it seem more prevalent than it actually is.

APPENDIX:

• Because of differences in the denominators, these instances may be compared across networks, but not across instances.

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