Rick Hess and Caitlyn Aversman
- An analysis of 100 news stories from five major newspapers regarding President Joe Biden’s proposal to unilaterally “forgive” $400 billion in student loan debt finds a strong pro-administration bias in the coverage.
- Democratic officials, progressive advocates, and borrowers (all of whom were overwhelmingly supportive) accounted for over two-thirds of the coverage’s quotes. Democratic officials were quoted more than four times as often as Republican ones.
- The coverage gave short shrift to the proposal’s legality, fairness, or inflationary impact. For instance, fewer than one in five news accounts even mentioned the 2003 Higher Education Relief Opportunities for Students Act, which the White House used to justify its unprecedented action; only one in three alluded to its regressive nature; and just 24 percent noted its inflationary impact.