When it comes to day care, you can't trust the media.

• Author: Eisenberg, Sherri
• Position: Media reports of results of study on day care

If you had scanned the headlines of the nation's major newspapers this past April, you would have thought that eight new studies on child care had just been released: "Day Care Study Offers Reassurance to Working Parents," announced The Washington Post. "Day Care Study Provides `Cautionary Note' to Mothers," contended The Washington Times. "Impact of Child Care is Mixed," reasoned The Wall Street Journal. "Good Day Care Found to Aid Cognitive Skills of Children," declared The New York Times.

Believe it or not, the papers were all referring to the same research, as presented in a just-completed report by the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD). Both the study and the press's widely varying responses to it open a window on how media bias and government spin prevent parents from getting honest, useful information about the impact of child care.

Never has that information been more vital Ever since the sexual revolution sent women off to pack their briefcases, mothers have been plagued by the fear that child care will harm their children. Today, more than 60 percent of America's kids spend their days with someone other than Mom. And as new welfare rules force thousands of poor mothers into the workplace, that number is expected to grow.

Given these statistics, you'd think both the government and the media would be doing everything in their power to help parents understand the impact of day care on children. They're not. Politicians have shied away from this politically charged Pandora's box for years, resulting in a pathetic absence of public policy. Similarly, as a result of the subject's divisive nature, objective reporting on it has become almost impossible. Media coverage of child care has become a political Rorschach test, and even journalists who ordinarily demonstrate great discipline check their...