A positive discrepancy
Shocking, just shocking:
Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton both have received much more positive news coverage than John McCain.
A study by Pew Research Center’s Project for Excellence in Journalism and the Joan Shorenstein Center on Press, Politics and Public Policy at Harvard University was released last week.
(I guess that didn't get much media play.)
Researchers looked at the "personal narratives" of the candidates as presented in the news. For Obama, these were portrayed positively 69 percent of the time during the period reviewed; for Clinton, 67 percent -- evenhanded treatment (contrary to the Clintons' assertions).
But McCain? Only 43 percent.
"On the Republican side, John McCain, the candidate who quickly clinched his party’s nomination, has had a harder time controlling his message in the press," researchers found. "Fully 57% of the narratives studied about him were critical in nature, though a look back through 2007 reveals the storyline about the Republican nominee has steadily improved with time."
That's good news. No doubt as he and Obama go head-to-head until Election Day, press coverage will be equally fair to both.
Comments (5)
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Doug,
We can only hope that is the case, but, of course, we have to endure the NBC/MSNBC Elect Obama Channel for several months. By the way, are you like Chris Matthews and have a thrill go up your leg when Obama speaks?
Posted on June 4, 2008 7:34 PM
Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton both have received much more positive news coverage than John McCain* Pew Research
Except for President Obama and his spiritual search for a church and another Preacher. Look anybody can see that President Obama has been driven from the promise land by a bunch of Republican Goat Heathen Poll worshipers and when the McCain Swift boat team gets done with President Obama, he will be without a wife and his daughters would have file sexual abuse charges against him and Hillary gets to be President.
Posted on June 4, 2008 7:43 PM
That's a very personal question, anonymous.
Fact is, I couldn't get enough of Hillary.
Posted on June 4, 2008 9:32 PM
Interestingly enough, I think Fox News is largely responsible for the negative stories on McCain about him not being a "true conservative." In fact, all their pundits were lining up to criticize his speech last night. It's hard to blame the media for that line on him though because he did try for many years to paint himself as a "maverick."
Posted on June 4, 2008 11:23 PM
Assuming Fox was equally negative today Obama and Clinton, however, the other outlets still would have to be relatively more negative to McCain to account for these numbers.
Again, I'm sure they all will be evenhanded from here on out.
Posted on June 5, 2008 8:47 AM