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The political content on cable TV is symptomatic of the highly polarized era we live in. In this study of Fox and MSNBC, we sampled primetime evening programs on both and analyzed each major story presented. Our approach conceptualized each segment as a narrative and, as such, we coded the political arc of these stories and focused on the villains animating each set piece. On Fox the villains, who are harshly denounced, are disproportionately people of color. In contrast, on MSNBC, the villains are rarely minorities. Likewise, women are disproportionately the villains on Fox, frequently described as unintelligent and out of control. On MSNBC, women are almost never the villain. Despite the abrasiveness of its content, Fox's business model works as there is a substantial audience for this type of outrage programming. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

American cities vary considerably in the degree to which they pursue sustainability. What explains this variation? One plausible cause of such differences is that sustainability may be more appealing to high-income cities than to more economically challenged cities. Yet such strict economic determinism seems simplistic and removes politics from an inherently political process. The hypothesis here is that any such relationship between income and commitment to sustainability is conditioned by a city's level of environmental advocacy. The data utilized in this analysis are derived from two large-scale data sources. One is a comprehensive inventory of sustainability programs and policies in 50 large American cities. The other is a set of surveys in those same 50 cities. The multivariate model supports the hypothesis. Controlling for income growth and the predisposition of policymakers to be supportive of sustainability (as well as other alternative explanations), a city's commitment to sustainability is strongly linked to the advocacy of environmental and sustainability groups in the policymaking process. The example of Sustainable Seattle is used to illustrate the linkages that would seem to underlie the statistical analysis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]