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Executive Summary

This backgrounder reviews media coverage of the Bush administration’s “Healthy Marriage Initiative” during the roughly four weeks of January 14 through February 9, 2004. The sudden burst of press attention during this period has largely framed the public’s current understanding of this policy issue.

We divide this review into two main parts. First, we review journalists’ political analysis of the marriage initiative. And second, we review their substantive (or programmatic) analysis of the initiative.

The principal conclusion of this review is that substantive analyses of the marriage initiative during this period raised legitimate and important issues, while the political analyses were almost entirely erroneous and without foundation.

Moreover, in the great majority of articles, the political content frames and dominates any substantive content, and the issue itself is presented to the public in overwhelmingly political terms.

As a result, the possibility of the U.S. public gaining an accurate understanding of marriage education programs generally, and of the administration’s marriage initiative, is currently at risk.

In these past few weeks of intensive media coverage, a major public issue has been not only framed, but misframed. This misframing has had consequences. The public’s understanding of an important policy issue has been seriously compromised.

Context

The provisions for federally funded marriage-strengthening programs, including aspects of the Bush administration’s “Healthy Marriage Initiative,” have been the topic of media coverage for some time. President Bush first announced his proposal to spend federal funds on healthy marriage activities in February of 2002, as part of the Administration’s proposal for TANF reauthorization connected to welfare reform. This proposal was passed by the U.S. House of Representatives in May of 2003, and by the Senate Finance Committee in September of 2003. Over the past two years, stories in both the local and national press have periodically covered the debate over the marriage provisions in the TANF reauthorization proposal.

The media have also devoted some attention to publicly funded marriage demonstration projects in several states and communities. For example, in the past two years, two major national pieces have appeared: a PBS documentary written by journalist Alex Kotlowitz and a New Yorker piece by the Pulitzer prize-winning journalist Katherine Boo.

Beginning on January 14, 2004, however, the Bush administration’s marriage initiative drew a sudden and intense wave of media coverage. The administration’s programs and proposals to fund marriage-related activities became front-page news. Scores of stories and opinion pieces appeared in papers across the nation. Reporters, editorialists, opinion writers, humorists, and columnists all had something to say about the marriage initiative.

Part One: Political Analysis

What Do the Stories Say?

The vast majority of coverage of the healthy marriage initiative involved political analysis that linked the initiative with efforts to combat gay marriage. The New York Times led off on January 14 with a page one, above-the-fold story. Headlined “Bush Plans $1.5 Billion Drive for Promotion of Marriage,” the piece was written by reporters Robert Pear and David D. Kirkpatrick, the latter of whom was recently assigned the job of covering conservatives. The story began: “Administration officials say they are planning an extensive election-year initiative to promote marriage, especially among low-income couples. . . .” It said the administration “was weighing” a decision to “promote” the plan in the president’s upcoming State of the Union address on January 20, and it asserted that the administration and conservative groups recently had been working on the plan “because they were facing pressure from conservatives eager to see the federal government defend traditional marriage.” In a second-day story, again by David Kirkpatrick, headlined “Bush’s Push for Marriage Falls Short for Conservatives,” the Times labeled the marriage initiative a “new White House” plan. It again called the initiative “new” and linked it to a political strategy designed to placate conservative groups opposed to same-sex marriage.

The Times continued its coverage over the following days. On January 17, it published an editorial entitled “Heartless Marriage.” The piece called the healthy marriage initiative one of “those rather expensive but basically symbolic gestures that presidents like to make in election years.” On January 18, it published a News of the Week in Review story, “Two Fronts: Promoting Marriage, Fighting Poverty,” by Tom Zeller. The article led off with a premise nearly identical to earlier Times stories: namely, that the initiative was a “gesture” to anti-gay marriage conservatives. Zeller wrote: “No sooner had the Bush administration heralded its initiative last week to spend $1.5 billion to promote marriage, particularly among low-income couples, than some social and religious conservatives began to worry. The gesture, they said, was a weak substitute for their larger goal: support from the White House for a constitutional amendment banning gay marriage.”

Within days, scores of other news organizations picked up the story, with news stories and opinion pieces appearing around the country. Editorials were published in the Washington Post, the Boston Globe, USA Today, Chicago Tribune, Detroit Free Press, Pittsburgh Post Gazette, Dallas Morning News, and at least 25 other metropolitan papers. Columns by Ellen Goodman (Boston Globe), William Raspberry (Washington Post), Clarence Page (Chicago Tribune), Mitch Albom (Detroit Free Press), Merrill Markoe (Los Angeles Times), Los Angeles-based columnist Arianna Huffington, Cynthia Tucker (Atlanta Journal Constitution), Rochelle Riley (Detroit Free Press), Susan Reimer (Baltimore Sun), Jane Eisner (Philadelphia Inquirer), Ana Veciana-Suarez (Miami Herald), and many others took up the topic.

An opinion piece by former Secretary of Labor Robert Reich, first published in the Washington Post on January 22, subsequently appeared in many other papers. NPR’s Susan Stamberg offered commentary on January 17, and Neal Conan, host of NPR’s Talk of the Nation, devoted a segment of the January 22 show to the administration’s marriage initiative. The Times itself continued its coverage on Sunday, January 25, with an op-ed by author Laura Kipnis, “Should This Marriage Be Saved?” and a front page story, “Made in Heaven?” by Times reporter Tamar Lewin. Frank Rich took up the topic in his February 1 column, “What’s Love Got to Do with It?” Coverage continued briskly through the first week of February, with pieces in such venues as the Wisconsin State Journal, Fort Worth Star Telegram, and Minneapolis Star Tribune.

The New York Times had pegged its January 14 story to a political event—the upcoming State of the Union address on January 20—and to unnamed sources in the administration who were said to be “weighing” a decision to announce the healthy marriage initiative at that time. Many other media outlets adopted this as their news peg in the run-up to the State of the Union speech. Typical was the report in the Palm Beach Post that “Bush is expected to unveil a marriage support proposal Tuesday during his annual State of the Union address.”

Following the New York Times’ lead, most news and opinion pieces framed the marriage initiative as a political strategy tied to the presidential election campaign and to the administration’s negotiations with the religious right. According to this view, the healthy marriage initiative was recently conceived by the White House to provide religious conservatives with an alternative to what the conservatives wanted far more—a high-profile pledge by President Bush to oppose gay marriage.

Especially on the opinion pages, editorialists, columnists, and op-ed writers linked the healthy marriage initiative to political strategy aimed at appeasing the anti-gay marriage religious right. For example, a January 19 editorial in the Toledo Blade repeated, almost verbatim, the Times’ claim that “White House officials have been working for months with conservative groups to fashion a marriage promotion plan that would please some of the President’s core constituents.” An editorialist for the Pittsburgh Post Gazette wrote on January 17: “The plan is evidently a sop to Mr. Bush’s ultra-conservative base who think traditional marriage is under siege.” On January 19, Raleigh News and Observer columnist Bonnie Erbe wrote: “Political analysts aver the marriage promotion campaign is aimed less at poor, single parents it claims to want to save and more at far-right social conservatives whose dander is up over the recent Massachusetts Supreme Court decision affirming gay marriage.”

Citing the Times as its source, the Chicago Tribune editorial on January 20 stated that the administration’s theory is “that pushing marriage is a way to appease the right without the danger of alienating moderates and conservatives by appearing intolerant to homosexuals.” The title of a column in the Dayton Daily News sums up this perspective this way: “Shallow effort’s goal is votes.”

An editorial in the Philadelphia Daily News dismissed the administration’s firm denial, in a January 15 White House press briefing, that the healthy marriage initiative had anything to do with conservative opposition to gay marriage: “While they say there’s no connection between this program, conceived as part of welfare reform, and the hysteria that conservatives are trying to stir up over gay relationships, you and I know better.” A similar New York Daily News editorial ran on January 15 saying, “The whole thing is a ploy to redirect conservatives’ attention from Bush’s failure to back a foolish constitutional amendment to prohibit same-sex marriages.” Others editorialists echoed this view, labeling the initiative a “sop,” a “thinly veiled attempt to placate the religious right,” and a “theocratic” rule.

Are the Stories Accurate?

In general, the political analyses in these stories contain error, omissions, and unfounded speculation.

A “new” White House initiative?

Media coverage that emphasized political aspects of the initiative almost always ignored the public record on the legislative history of the marriage initiative as well as the history of vigorous debate over the marriage-related proposals connected to the reauthorization of TANF. Only by ignoring this record entirely could the healthy marriage initiative be described as “new,” “recent,” “floated,” “being contemplated,” being “unveiled,” or in development.

The initiative is not new. President Bush first announced his proposal to spend $200 million annually in federal funds, plus $100 million in matching state funds, on healthy marriage activities in February of 2002, as part of the administration’s proposal for TANF reauthorization in the welfare reform bill. Further, the proposal had already been passed by the U.S. House of Representatives in May of 2003, and by the Senate Finance Committee in September of 2003.

By January of 2004, then, the healthy marriage initiative had been around for almost two years. It has already been the focus of some amount of public commentary, legislative hearings, policy analyses, and media reports. Several newspapers—notably the Washington Times, the Christian Science Monitor, and the Philadelphia Inquirer—accurately reported during the period under investigation that the healthy marriages announcement first came in 2002, and had since passed the House and the key Senate committee. But these were exceptions. Beginning with the New York Times story on January 14, the dominant journalistic view suddenly became that the administration’s marriage initiative was “new.”

A State of the Union announcement?

In the period between January 15 and the January 20 State of the Union address, a number of stories and opinion pieces, citing the Times as a source, reported that the “healthy marriage” initiative was about to be announced in the upcoming State of the Union address. This speculation proved to be unfounded. The president did not announce or discuss the “healthy marriage” initiative during his State of the Union address on January 20. Nonetheless, even after the State of the Union, the assertion that the “healthy marriage” initiative had been announced, was about to be announced, or was in the planning stages of an announcement, continued to appear in the press. As recently as February 6, for example, an editorial in the Petoskey (MI) News-Review stated: “In his State of the Union recently, Bush announced he has earmarked $1.5 billion (yes billion) for ‘building interpersonal relationships’ to promote healthy marriage.” The State of the Union address contained no such announcement.

A pet project of the religious right?

The persistent claim that the healthy marriage initiative has been cooked up to please, or appease, the religious right is hard to support from available evidence. Indeed, the legislative history of the healthy marriage initiative goes back to the 1996 welfare reform bill, a measure passed with bipartisan Congressional support, including support from such Democrats as Senator John Kerry, and signed by President Bill Clinton. This legislation calls for the promotion of marriage and for the formation and maintenance of two-parent families. The Bush administration’s healthy marriage initiative was announced in 2002 to meet this legislative requirement. Further, support for the Bush administration’s more than two-year-old “Healthy Marriage Initiative” has come from a number of academics, educators, and community leaders on the Democratic side of the aisle. Mathematica and the Urban Institute, respected research institutions not known for conservative leanings, are currently receiving administration grants for research related to the healthy marriage initiative.

A political ploy to placate the religious right?

In the State of the Union address, President Bush spoke specifically on the issue of gay marriage, stating his support for traditional heterosexual marriage. These on-the-record comments undercut the New York Times’ earlier speculation, based on unnamed sources within the administration, that the “Healthy Marriage Initiative” might be used in the State of the Union to attempt to placate the anti-gay marriage religious right in lieu of a strong statement against gay marriage. If this was ever the administration’s strategy, it certainly did not materialize during the State of the Union address. Yet in reporting on what the president actually said in its coverage of the State of the Union, the Times and other news organizations failed to correct the earlier unfounded speculation.

In general, news stories and editorials emphasizing this political-ploy thesis - some of which, as noted above, continued even after the State of the Union address effectively disproved it—did not offer any evidence to support it, apart from equally unsubstantiated assertions appearing or having recently appeared in other publications.

Part Two: Substantive Analysis

What Do the Stories Say?

Most of the substantive analysis of the marriage initiative was critical, some of it quite strongly so. In addition, in most stories, any substantive analysis is framed by, and therefore is effectively overshadowed by, the political analysis. In short, most stories describe the marriage initiative in fundamentally political terms.

Yet in terms of fairness, balance, and (most importantly) basic factual accuracy, the substantive analyses in the period under review, especially when viewed on their own terms, are quite different from the political analyses.

First, many stories and columns that critiqued the content of the initiative also made a point clearly to affirm the social value of marriage and the goal of encouraging the formation of two-parent families. For example, Cynthia Tucker, the editorial page editor of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, prefaced her criticism of the initiative by writing: “I believe in the institution of marriage. I was reared by two parents in a loving and stable home, and I have no doubt that this arrangement is best for children.” This kind of affirmation of the social importance of marriage was seldom seen in the media even a few short years ago, and it represents a notable shift.

On editorial pages, three papers—USA Today, the Desert Morning News, and the Miami Herald—had a positive take on the marriage initiative, though with qualifications. For example, USA Today, though favoring the healthy marriage plan as a cost-saving prevention approach, suggested that the administration combine marriage activities with the elimination of marriage penalties in existing federal legislation. Similarly, a few columnists—Jane Eisner in the Philadelphia Inquirer, Ana Veciana Suarez in the Miami Herald, and Shaunti Feldhahn in the Atlanta Journal Constitution—took a generally positive view of the initiative.

Criticisms of the initiative’s content came from both the Left and Right. Fiscal conservatives focused on what they saw as excessive federal spending on an unproven program. Social liberals focused on what they saw as a plan to substitute marriage for jobs. And with the exception of syndicated columnist Maggie Gallagher, social conservatives were missing in action from the opinion pages.

The criticism rested on several recurring arguments. These arguments are listed below, in rough order of their frequency and with illustrative quotations:

• Government has no business meddling in people’s love lives

It is intrusive for the government to sell marriage. —Boston Globe, January 20

The end result would be the creation of a government-funded marriage bureaucracy and consulting industry that had the financial incentive to keep the “marriage problem” alive for eternity. —Cincinnati Enquirer, “Bush Plan on Marriage Called into Question,” January 16

• A waste of scarce federal dollars

The good intentions in this $1.5 billion community wedding gift ought to provide another fair-sized brick for the road to deficit hell. —Pittsburgh Post Gazette, editorial, January 17

It’s not necessarily wise for a cash-strapped federal government to spend a considerable sum of money trying to convince people of something that is not exactly a state secret. —Chicago Tribune editorial, January 20

• A shift in priorities from jobs to marriage for low-income people

The best way to stabilize the American family and improve the odds that children won’t be impoverished is to help women—and men—get better-paying jobs. That means, at least, access to good schools and job training . . . government programs to promote marriage are beside the point. —Robert Reich, op-ed, “Marriage Aid That Misses the Point,” January 22, Washington Post

The White House could have proposed $l.5 billion to increase unemployment insurance, subsidize health coverage or otherwise ease a family’s money crunch. But in an election year, it decided to deliver it all via adult education. —Michael Currie Shaffer, Philadelphia Inquirer, January 18

• A dearth of marriageable men for low-income women

Epidemics of joblessness and incarceration have stripped those [inner city] communities of what social scientists call “marriageable” men. —New York Times, editorial, January 17

• Lacks evidence of its effectiveness

To spend money on programs that we have no data to support that they make any difference sounds to me very much based on ideology and not on science. —Sociologist Barbara Risman in an interview with the Raleigh News & Observer, January 19

There’s not a whit of proof government can woo couples to the altar, much less entice them to stay married over long durations. —Bonnie Erbe, “Promoting Marriage or Political Payoff?” Raleigh News & Observer, January 19

• Places women at risk for domestic violence

We have some concerns that it is not addressing the very dangerous situations that victims of domestic violence find themselves in. . . It comes across as “Stay together at all costs.” —Mary Lee Hafley, Executive Director, Women’s Shelter, Arlington, TX quoted in Star Telegram, January 30

Are the Stories Accurate?

In sharp contrast to the political analyses reviewed above, the substantive content of media coverage during this period, while generally quite critical, raised legitimate and important issues in a fair manner.

It is also noteworthy that, in the period under review, very few public supporters of the marriage initiative appeared in these stories, spoke out on behalf the initiative (for example, through op-eds or letters to the editor), or were able in any way effectively to project their voices into this intense media discussion. Part of the reason is that it all happened very fast.

In these stories, the chief source cited in support of the marriage initiative is Wade Horn, the Assistant Secretary for Children and Families at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the administration’s point person on the healthy marriage initiative. In news stories, editorials, radio interviews, and letters to the editor, Horn offered rebuttals, clarification, and correction to these substantive criticisms.

For example, on the criticism of federal spending, Horn said: “The government spends a huge amount of money to pick up the pieces after a marriage has failed, or when a child is born out of wedlock, or in dealing with all the problems that come from broken families. It makes more sense to spend a little money to try to prevent those things from happening in the first place.”

In a letter to the editor in the Washington Post, he responded to Robert Reich’s argument that jobs matter more than marriage: “The marriage debate cannot be reduced to the false choice Mr. Reich would have us make, between increasing the employment and earnings prospects of the poor and improving couples’ relationship skills through marriage education. We need to do both.” As for the dearth of marriage-worthy men, Horn’s letter cites a Heritage Foundation study that found “two-thirds of the unmarried fathers who were present at the time of their child’s birth had at least a high school degree, and 97 percent were employed during the past year and had earnings sufficient to bring a family of three out of poverty.”

In an appearance on NPR’s Talk of the Nation, Horn responded to a caller’s question about “government meddling” in private decisions like marriage: “I’ll tell you, if you want to see government intrude into family life, get married and then get divorced. And if you’re a noncustodial parent, the government is going to tell you how often you can see your kids, what days you can see your kids, whether or not you can pick your kid up after school or whether or not you can visit your child at a hospital, how much money you have to spend on your child, and if you don’t spend that money on your child, we’re going to put you in jail. I mean, the idea that somehow government is not involved in family life is not true.”

In the same program, Horn also answered host Neil Conan’s question about the effectiveness of marriage education: “Actually there’s a great deal of research in marriage education that shows that we can, in fact, teach listening, communication, problem-solving, and negotiation skills. . . . But there’s lots that we still need to know and that’s one of the reasons why we take very seriously our obligation to evaluate these programs.” On the issue of domestic violence, Horn said premarital education, one of the activities covered by the healthy marriage initiative, aimed at identifying reasons why couples should not marry: “When you find violence in a dating relationship, the answer is not to say ‘Go get married and everything will be fine.’ The solution is to say to the victim, ‘Get out of this relationship. The last thing you want to do is marry this abuser.’ So we think, actually, domestic violence rates will go down.”

One frequently appearing point of substantive criticism does seem to reflect a certain inaccuracy, or at least unfamiliarity with the content of the initiative. That inaccuracy concerns the number of pieces characterizing the healthy marriage initiative as a program of “marriage counseling” or marital therapy. For example, “Who would have imagined that a Republican president would want the federal government in the marriage-counseling business?” asks a Dallas Morning News editorialist.

In fact, the administration’s healthy marriage initiative provides funding and support for marriage education, not marriage counseling. Marriage education, like parent education, imparts information and skills to people who choose to take the classes.

The mischaracterization of marriage education as “counseling” or “therapy” lent credence to the notion that the government was “pushing” people into marriage or pulling people from the brink of divorce. (Relatedly, these stories typically fail to point out that, according to the administration and to those who design and run these programs, all participation in marriage education programs is voluntary and based on personal choice.) Other stories reduced the activities of the marriage initiative to “a few counseling sessions” and “some government-sponsored billboards.” In fact, the healthy marriage initiative grants allow funding for a number of activities, including significant dollars for research and evaluation.

Conclusions

In the period under review, the vast majority of press items on the administration’s marriage initiative framed it as a new, election-year political ploy that is the next battle in the emerging culture war over gay marriage. This description is erroneous and without factual foundation. It is less a framing than a misframing.

Most of the press coverage of the marriage initiative during this period ignored the public record and the recent history of the initiative. Overwhelmingly, coverage of the initiative emphasized a speculative political angle and routinely overlooked evidence on the actual provisions of the proposal—information that is readily available from Congressional debates, public hearings, and numerous policy analysis dating from 2002.

These stories fail to name sources for this political speculation. In addition, many journalists and columnists pursued and even now continue to pursue this story line even after the speculation on which it was based—an expected State of the Union announcement about the marriage initiative that could be seen as an effort to appease conservatives opposed to same-sex marriage—proved to be unfounded.

Some news sources also critiqued the substance of the initiative, as is appropriate and necessary. Some responses to these substantive critiques appeared as well. But examples of genuine, informed debate on this bipartisan initiative—one that has been evolving for over three years—were few and far between.

What are the consequences of this remarkable turn of events?

What had heretofore been in fact a serious, ongoing, and largely bipartisan discussion of an important policy question—Is offering marriage-supportive programs to low-income couples one important aspect of welfare reform and a legitimate goal of public policy?—is now at risk of becoming profoundly misunderstood by the public, and perhaps even by some legislators, as just an election-year gimmick seeking to play upon passions connected to same-sex marriage.

Heretofore, marriage education and support has attracted both Democratic and Republican votes in Congress, dating from 1996. The administration’s “Healthy Marriage Initiative” has been studied, and aided, by scholars and analysts on both the liberal and conservative sides of the spectrum. It has helped to generate numerous state and community-level efforts, led by coalitions involving businesses, social service providers, and health agencies. It has engaged the energies and the (frequently volunteer) efforts of thousands of local independents, Democrats and Republicans who seek sincerely in this work to help low-income couples and their children.

All of this history and all these accomplishments and challenges were largely ignored. All of it, in terms of the accuracy of the public’s understanding, is now at risk. All of it has been largely—and falsely—redefined in the public mind as an election-year ploy based on an ideological struggle between the far right and the far left over same-sex marriage. The grassroots marriage movement, and the public as a whole, has been ill served by the recent press attention to this important issue.

Scope and Method

This backgrounder reviews media coverage of the Bush administration’s “Healthy Marriage Initiative” during the four weeks of January 14 through February 9, 2004. Items under review include news stories, columns, opinion pieces, and other commentaries focused on the marriage initiative appearing in the mainstream national and local press, as well as on National Public Radio. We identified and collected this journalism through repeated online searches during this period, in particular through clipping services. We examined all of the relevant articles that we found. Those articles, which define the universe under review in this study, are listed in the Appendix. Journalism stemming from broadcast outlets (with the exception of National Public Radio), cable news outlets, off-line alternative newspapers, websites, and weblogs are not included in this review.