Subliminals: Laura & Teresa
Reported by Marie Therese - June 30, 2004 -
Big Story with John Gibson. Tuesday, June 29, 2004. 5:43 to 5:47 PM EDT
Guest: Presidential historian, Stephen Hess
TOPIC: Laura Bush and Teresa Heinz Kerry
There was a distinct difference in the way each woman's personal information was treated in the lower-third graphics (those BIG FACT banners that show up in the lower third of your TV screen above the webcrawl).
During the first 3 minutes of the interview, there were a total of 60 seconds of BIG FACTS outlining Laura Bush's accomplishments: College, graduate school, fundraising for libraries and the like. During this same 3 minutes virtually no BIG FACTS were shown for Mrs. Kerry.
At 5:46 PM EDT. when we finally see a head shot of Mrs. Kerry, two MORE Big Facts appear - both about LAURA BUSH!!!
Finally, about three minutes into the discussion, we learn something about Teresa Heinz Kerry. The BIG FACTS don't speak about her education or fundraising.. Instead they are about her marriages to John Heinz and John Kerry, her net worth, her comments about herself. They are shown in 4 and 8 second flashes until almost the end of the interview when FOX airs her comments about being "cheeky, sexy, whatever". Even though the eventual total is "fair" (60 seconds for each woman), the distribution and content of the BIG FACTS are quite different.
The subliminal message is that Laura Bush is a real lady, an educated woman, who helps children by raising money for libraries. Since her net worth is never mentioned, we don't think of her in monetary terms.
The submlinal message about Teresa Kerry is that she got her money by marrying a rich man, she's sexy, cheeky, out of control, not a lady.
