Posted by
Always To The Right on Wednesday, October 22, 2008 6:15:06 PM
Maybe the shocker is that McClatchy
reported it. Pew Research says it’s not even close. Only 14% of John
McCain’s coverage has been positive, compared to a whopping 59%
negative, since the debate. What about Barack Obama? Three guesses:
John McCain is getting more negative media coverage than
Barack Obama, according to a study conducted by the Pew Research Center.
The study, released Wednesday, examined 2,412 campaign stories from
48 news outlets during the six weeks from the end of the conventions
through the final presidential debate.
The results: While the candidates are receiving equal amounts of
coverage, 59% of stories about McCain were “decidedly negative in
nature,” while only 14% were positive.
Obama hasn’t exactly been fawned over by media, but the coverage
statistically has been more evenhanded, with 36% of stories clearly
positive, 35% neutral or mixed, and 29% negative.
Put it another way: Obama gets treated positively 250% more often
than John McCain, who gets treated negatively more than 200% more than
Obama. And that’s from equal amounts of coverage, which is in itself
just a little surprising. Just imagine what it would like if the
coverage was imbalanced.
Pew has a few caveats about their study. The negative coverage
mainly comes from poll analysis, they say, and McCain’s been trending
downward longer since the conventions than Obama. That’s true as far
as it goes, but I’m curious as to whether the polls drive that or the
coverage drives the polling. Also, the proliferation of polls gives
media outlets their choice of narrative. Maybe they focus on the worst
of the polls more than the ones indicating more of a dead heat? That
could explain why some media outlets (I won’t name names like CBS,
of course!) routinely conduct polls with ridiculously-skewed samples
favoring Democrats by 14 points, just to drive that kind of negative
coverage.