Media's Affect on Affirmative Action 

Mainstream news media greatly affects the public's views and opinion in this case, on affirmative action regarding women. Consideration of affirmative action's impact and meaning for women of all colors is largely missing from news stories, and women are severely underrepresented on opinion pages. Moreover, affirmative action is mostly thought of for blacks, Hispanics, and other races, but not women.

Worse, with a few exceptions, major media are reporting the debate on affirmative action without reference to the continued existence of racist and sexist practices. Severed from the context of the discrimination to which it is a response, affirmative action is presented as a confusing, "hot-button" issue, about which few facts can be known. The persistent use of the problematic terms "preferences" or "racial preferences" as synonyms for affirmative action programs underscores mainstream media's distorted presentation of the issue.

These are the main findings of a survey of news media coverage of affirmative action in the first six months of 1998. 

Also, media is known to distort true facts and change them into what officials want you to think. Regarding affirmative action, the media has distorted the facts so much that at times  the common knowledge people know about affirmative action is all myths. Such myths include:

• The only way to create a color-blind society is to adopt color-blind policies.
• Affirmative action has not succeeded in increasing female and minority representation.
• Affirmative action may have been necessary 30 years ago, but the playing field is fairly level today
• The public doesn't support affirmative action anymore.
• A large percentage of White workers will lose out if affirmative action is continued.
• You can't cure discrimination with discrimination.
• If Jewish people and Asian Americans can rapidly advance economically, African Americans should be able to do the same.
• Affirmative action tends to undermine the self-esteem of women and racial minorities.
• Affirmative action is nothing more than an attempt at social engineering by liberal Democrats.
• Support for affirmative action means support for preferential selection procedures that favor unqualified candidates over qualified candidates.