AOL News Item of the Day: Media Biased against Obama?

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Now there's a headline sure to make Rush Limbaugh's face a little redder. The claim comes to us from George Mason University's Center for Media and Public Affairs, which has studied network newscasts for 20 years running. After analyzing the nightly ebb and flow of our current race, the center's researchers see a pattern (Via the Los Angeles Times):


"...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.


Just how does one measure "tougher," you ask?


"During the evening news, the majority of statements from reporters and anchors on all three networks were 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."


Yes, it seems as though the "Big Three" (cable TV and print journalism were not looked at in the study) are so sensitive to the accusation of liberal bias that they're going out of their way to knock the Illinois senator.

McCain also has been the recipient of negative commentary, but not nearly to the same degree:


"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."


While it is true that Obama gets more coverage than McCain, that coverage itself -- at least from the 3 major network -- tends to show a conservative bias. Here's how Robert Lichter, the director of The Center for Media and Public Affairs, put it:


"This information should blow away this silly assumption that more coverage is always better coverage,"


No, the old advertising adage -- there's no such thing as bad publicity -- doesn't hold true for politics. Just ask Gary Condit, or Ted Stevens.

But how many people really watch the Big Three anymore for their nightly shot of news? According to TVNewser, about 21 million Americans.

Though the influence of network news is falling fast, especially with younger Americans who are moving in droves to the internet for their information, 21 million eyes still represents a significant portion of the voting population.

So, could the pro-McCain bias be having an effect on the race? No doubt. Maybe it's the x-factor that commentators like Robert Novak have been searching for to explain why Obama still has only a 9-point lead over McCain in national polls. After all, we know that Obama tends to do better with younger voters, while McCain is the preference of those of advanced years. Not surprisingly, the Big Three networks also do well with older viewers, those Americans who have long ago settled into a routine of planting themselves in their recliners each and every night to receive that definitive half hour of world events. The question then, it seems to me, is whether ABC, CBS and NBC are playing to their audience of older viewers by being more critical of Obama, or if their coverage, in part, helps account for older voters' reticence to support the new guy.

[From AOL News]