Network Coverage Biased Against Obama: Los Angeles Times
The Center for Media and Public Affairs at George Mason University, where researchers have tracked network news content for two decades, found that ABC, NBC and CBS were tougher on Obama than on Republican John McCain during the first six weeks of the general-election campaign.
You read it right: tougher on the Democrat.
During the evening news, the majority of statements from reporters and anchors on all three networks are neutral, the center found. And when network news people ventured opinions in recent weeks, 28% of the statements were positive for Obama and 72% negative.
Network reporting also tilted against McCain, but far less dramatically, with 43% of the statements positive and 57% negative, according to the Washington-based media center.
Not that this is going to stop conservatives from whining about how MEAN everyone in the media is to Honorable John McCain and Republicans in general. After I mentioned a similar study a few years ago, I got an e-mail saying "I don't care what your so-called 'facts' say, everyone KNOWS the media is liberal."
It just goes to show: you can't use logic to persuade people away from a position that logic didn't get them to in the first place.
I saw this on one of those politcial talk shows and when the host relayed the stats, the right wing tool on the program countered by saying that over 70% of the American people believe the media is liberal. So there.
ReplyDeleteRepugs: the party of magical thinking.
ReplyDeleteYeah, but at least one major news paper had more pictures of Obama, so that just proves that they're biased in his favor! Because, you know, both McCain and Obama are equally photogenic, in both appearance and action! Isn't John McCain standing in a supermarket just as newsworthy as Obama talking to 200,000 people?
ReplyDelete