Conservative News Media and Criminal Justice: Evidence from Exposure to the Fox News Channel
研究发现，地方接触保守派新闻（福克斯新闻频道）会导致法官判处更严厉的刑罚，尤其对黑人被告和毒品犯罪影响更大，且该效应仅出现在民选法官中，表明选民态度变化是关键机制。
Abstract Local exposure to conservative news causes judges to impose harsher criminal sentences. Our evidence comes from an instrumental variable analysis, where randomness in television channel positioning across localities induces exogenous variation in exposure to the Fox News Channel. These treatment data on news viewership are taken to outcome data on almost seven million criminal sentencing decisions in the United States for the years 2005–17. Higher Fox News viewership increases incarceration length, and the effect is stronger for Black defendants and for drug-related crimes. We can rule out changes in the behaviour of police, prosecutors or potential offenders as significant drivers. Consistent with changes in voter attitudes as the key mechanism, the effect on sentencing harshness is observed for elected (but not appointed) judges. Fox News viewership also increases self-reported beliefs about the importance of drug crime as a social problem.