After all the sound and fury, the bombastic rhetoric thrown around by Democrats over the supposed partisanship of Fox News, comes this stunner of a study done by the conservative Media Research Center about coverage of the presidential campaigns on the three biggest morning shows on television.
In a word; mindboggling:
The study found that 55 percent of campaign stories on ABC’s “Good Morning America,” CBS’s “The Early Show” and NBC’s “Today” focused on Democratic candidates while only 29 percent focused on Republicans. The remaining 16 percent were classified as “mixed/independent.”The morning shows aired 61 stories focused exclusively on Sen. Hillary Clinton, 44 stories on former North Carolina Sen. John Edwards, and 41 stories on Sen. Barack Obama, all of whom are seeking the Democratic presidential nomination. Former Vice President Al Gore, who is not officially running, was the subject of 29 stories.
Republican candidates received less attention, according to the study. Sen. John McCain was the focus of 31 stories. Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani was the focus of 26 stories and former Mass. Gov. Mitt Romney was the focus of 19 stories.
Bring back the Fairness Doctrine!
And it isn’t just the number of stories being aired about Democrats that demonstrates an inherent bias bordering on cheerleading by the Big Three networks. Interviews with Democratic candidates or their representatives took up more than twice as much time on the air as those done with Republicans. What’s more, the tone and tenor of that coverage was almost worshipful; Hillary being referred to as “unbeatable” or Obama being called a “rock star” by grown up journalists would have been unthinkable just a few years ago.
The effect of all this coverage is to make the Democratic candidates into celebrities, creating an aura of invincibility around their campaigns. By contrast, most of the stories on John McCain’s candidacy revolved around the sinking nature of the campaign – because of his support of the mission in Iraq according to the networks.
I guess his authorship of the immigration bill, his stubborn defense of McCain Feingold, and his tepid support for conservative judges had nothing at all to do with the collapse of his campaign.
No doubt McCain’s imploding campaign is newsworthy. But contrast the death watch nature of McCain’s coverage with the worshipful devotion to Silky Pony’s equally hopeless effort. Edwards got his very own Town Hall meeting broadcast live on ABC.
Gee. No favoritism there.
More subjectively, MRC tried to measure the way questions were framed to candidates or their representatives and came away with the conclusion that they were “friendly” to Democrats and “actively promoting the liberal agenda.” I’m not really concerned about that kind of criticism. Politicians go on those morning programs because they are generally treated in a more “friendly” fashion in the first place. And as far as questions “promoting” a liberal agenda, that very well may be in the eye of the beholder.
But that kind of partisan critique pales next to the very real discrepancy – huge discrepancy – in time devoted to coverage of Democrats versus that given Republicans. It appears to me that the morning shows on the network haven’t even made an effort to be fair and balanced. The thought never entered their heads.
A case can be made for slightly unbalanced coverage in favor of Democrats due to the historic nature of the Clinton and Obama candidacies. But clearly not on the scale uncovered by the MRC study. In fact, a good case can be made the the Giuliani candidacy has as many newsworthy/gossipy elements to report on as any Democrat in the race. And the Romney campaign has many compelling storylines to it as well.
Nearly 12 million Americans still tune in to the morning news shows to tell them what is happening in the world, dwarfing the audience on cable shows for the same time slot. One would think that the Big Three news shows might take their responsibilities as journalists a little more seriously and cover the campaigns in order to inform the American people of the choices they will have to make on election day. Instead, the perception that the network news departments have become an extension of the Democratic National Committee and mouthpieces for liberal candidates is fostered by the doting coverage they give presidential candidates belonging to only one of the two parties.
Somehow, I don’t think we’ll hear yelps of fake outrage from the netnuts and their minions about this kind of bias. After all, the Democratic party brand of favoritism has been the hallmark of network television since at least the 1960’s. To them, it must seem as if all is right in the world. God is in the universe, the sun is rising in the east, setting in the west, and network news is showing a ridiculously biased face to the American people.
9:14 am
This Story is bogus. Much of the coverage of the Dems has been negative and it seems to me that the Networks, Cable plus Right Wing Talk Radio has been bashing the candidates to no end to drive up their negatives. Obama’s Wife makes a comment about her family and the Media went nuts for several days with stories of an attack on Hillary. The media has been pushing the “Clinton Fatigue†propaganda even as Hillary moves up in the polls. Every Media Right Winger has been on a mission to drive up her negatives for 16 years. The more her poll numbers go up the more they pound her. They pounded Obama for saying that he would not use Nukes against Al Qaeda and they slap him every chance they get! Only a mad man would contemplate using Nukes on small mobile personnel targets. They pounded Edwards’ and his wife for the little things.
Meanwhile the Repubs are getting a free ride again as they slip in under the radar. When they threaten to use the Nuke Option (thereby normalizing Nuke use for all) everyone in the Media yawns. In fact one of the reasons the Repubs are in a free fall is they don’t get the Media scrutiny that the Dems have been given over the years. The mythical “Liberal Biased Media†has been relentless in exposing Dems for any wrong doings to the point where the Dems have been scared straight. Repubs were free to commit all manner of vile offenses until their level of corruption finally reached the flash point and we have witness an explosion of base Right-Wing moral decay on our TVs in the last couple of years. Be careful what you wish for, your dreams just might come true as nightmares.
The law of unintended consequences. The Dems have been relatively well behaved corruption wise.
Who knew that the Right Wing domination of our Media would lead to “Repubs Gone Wildâ€.
DVD not available.
Banned but not out
10:05 am
Correct me if Im wrong but, in sports, the team that starts the season as the favorite usually gets more coverage than the others – especially those forecasted to do poorly.
“conventional Wisdom” is that the Dems are the favorite for the WH in ‘08 and that WHATEVER Republican wins the nomination is going to be the underdog. Is it really suprising that the pool of expected “favorites” gets more coverage than the pool of expected “underdogs”?
11:08 am
When you consider the fact that the Repubs running are in conflict with past Conservative Stances one might think that this would demand more coverage to sort out conflicts. Instead the “Liberal Biased Media seems to be bent on trying to fester conflict between the Democrats. The Repubs have many things to sort out but the Media is focused on the Dems like a laser beam. Clearly the Media has a vested interest in an 08 Repub victory. They do not want to give up the consolidation that took place under Bush. They don’t want the “Fairness Doctrine†to come back and they fear a Dem victory will bring new taxes. The Media Moguls have built a decided bias to the Right in what is presented and because of self-interests they plan to keep it that way. Dems will be Bashed.
Banned but not out.
11:18 am
Yo, Larry in LA. What color is the sky in your world?
11:20 am
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12:01 pm
Trackbacked by The Thunder Run – Web Reconnaissance for 08/30/2007
A short recon of what’s out there that might draw your attention, updated throughout the day…so check back often.
1:23 pm
evidently it doesn’t take much to boggle your little mind. for example, the recent news of the error in annual temps in the lower 48 states was also heralded by you as really important. except that it wasn’t.
maybe the repub candidates don’t get coverage because they are so LAME.
counting stories or minutes of coverage is not the correct measure. i’m sure Mitt is getting lots of coverage with his decision to throw Craig under the bus. is THIS the type of story you’d like to see more of?
1:26 pm
Spin it any way you want, giving more than twice the coverage to Dems over Repub is a sign of bias – even accounting for what I pointed out in the article that you obviously couldn’t or didn’t read.
2:58 pm
“Yo, Larry in LA. What color is the sky in your world�
Sshiell,
It varies but it is always true.
For some reason Repubs prefer fantasy to reality but it is not happenstance that the Republican debates follow the Democratic debates every time, giving the Repubs the last word. The bias definitely gives the edge to the Right. When you consider that Repubs have most of the Recessions and Stock Crashes then it is no wonder that the Media gives them so much help. Without that help Conservatives would almost never get elected. If they don’t get elected, they can’t allow the consolidation. It is the Right’s dream to have the Media speaking from one set of talking points, hence the Right-Wing Media Bias.
Banned but not out.
9:53 pm
Rick,
One thing you failed to mention in telling your half the story is the fact that the networks have had some trouble getting Republican candidates to appear. A similar, if less organized, problem as Fox News is having with scheduling Democratic candidates who are pretty much boycotting the network.
Of course, who can blame the Democrats?
The last Democratic presidential candidate I saw on Fox News was Senator Chris Dodd on O’Reilly’s show. Did you see this farce? O’Reilly didn’t like what Dodd had to say so he literally shouted him down refusing to let Dodd speak uninterrupted.
I dare you to find any example of an ABC, CBS, or NBC morning program treating a Republican thusly.
It isn’t an isolated instance. Fox News has continually trashed John Edwards. Hannity ran a long segment Sunday on Hannity’s America trashing Edwards. Brit Hume’s “Political Grapevine” segment yesterday singled out Edwards for abuse. John Gibson, headliner for The Big Story, sat by idly on his radio show while his sidekick “Angry Rich” spewed about Edwards “whoring” his wife’s cancer. Gibby fantasized out loud about interviewing Edwards so he could beat him up with loaded questions.
Fox News isn’t news. It’s conservative talk radio in a cable news format. It’s designed by Roger Ailes, the executive producer of Rush’s old tv show, who’s an expert at such things.
Can I find liberal bias in the so-called “mainstream media”? Absolutely. I can find conservative bias as well. If you visit liberal Media Matters’ web site you’ll see they spend far more time outing the conservative spin in the “mainstream media” than they do Fox News and conservative talk radio.
Conservatives who often blather on about wanting balance in the media are full of manure because the media they popularize like the vast sewer of right-wing hate radio is pure, unadulterated propaganda where they’re lucky to get even half the truth.
10:23 pm
The liberal bias is business as usual. Dan Rather, fabricated war atrocities by the AP, .....what bias? You want to hear blatant and consistent bias, listen to your tax funded NPR, National Public Radio. Liberal talk radio can not support itself, only by using tax dollars can they stay afloat. Even Liberals don’t want to hear anyone on the radio blather on about basic liberal causes, like higher taxes, socialized healthcare, surrender at any cost, and 3rd trimester abortions. They might as well name it National Liberal Radio.
The Fox News “fair and balanced” thing really gets under their skin, how dare anyone attack the liberal talking points on national TV!
10:40 pm
Steve,
Did you catch what you said? “Fair and balanced” gets under liberals skins because Fox News “attack(s)” liberals.
How can Fox News be “fair and balanced” and “attack” one side of the political spectrum? By definition that’s conservative bias. Thanks for making my case!
5:44 am
The dems on this post are really silly.
!!
Everyone knows the media is biased towards the left, all but Fox, and thank God we have one balanced one on TV.
The left owns the print media, we ALL know this and any attempt here to dispute that blantant FACT is hogwash and we aren’t falling for it guys, give it up.
Where is the coverage on hill’s funny money scandal, just 24/7 on sleezy craig.
GET REAL.
9:48 am
Spin it any way you want, giving more than twice the coverage to Dems over Repub is a sign of bias
If someone told you that “The fact that men outnumber women in science more than 2:1 is evidence of bias” would you agree?
I dont buy “different results = bias” when it comes to gender & race and I don’t buy it when it comes to politics.
1:13 pm
Liberal Media Bias? Duh. Any conservative watching the networks or perusing the papers can see the bias, while, in my opinion, liberals have to work to feign that it doesn’t exist, or worse, that the bias is the opposite of what it is: “I once saw something about something that proves you’re wrong!” Then there’s that automatic response: “But you have the Fox News Network!” Like liberals actually watch FNN for any length of time, or understand the difference between news and editorial content (if they did understand the difference they’d see the liberal bias in the news, but they don’t, and they can’t).
A few months ago I asked friends and family, “Who are the Republican candidates for President?” All I got were blank stares. There had been little network/newspaper coverage of Republicans at that point. They easily named every Democrat running because Hillary et al. were all over the news, 24/7.
I only asked the question because I already knew what the response would be, and I knew because I could see the bias as clear as day.
On a related note, my response to bringing back the fairness doctrine is: Bring it on! Conservatives are no longer going to accept liberal media bias as the status quo and the fairness doctrine would put the force of law behind their complaints. Every time liberal bias occurs (i.e., all day long) conservatives could file a complaint demanding a rebuttal, which would essentially paralyze the networks. Yes, liberals would do the same to Fox News and, their intended target, Rush—but conservatives could shut down EVERYTHING ELSE!
7:11 pm
Doorhold, liberals ONLY want to apply the fairness doctrine to talk radio, where they can’t compete at all. They DO NOT want to apply it to anything else. like TV or printed media. They want to be very selective about where they apply it. Can you hear the National Public Radio crowd screaming bloody murder if they are forced to be balanced? They will probably cry that they are protected from balance due to them being taxpayer funded. Our taxes used to distribute their agenda, thats what the liberals call balanced.
2:02 pm
This is so timely.
Just the other day I got to watch as “so-called” reporters for a “so-called” network news organization referred to the “so-called” success of the “so-called” surge.
You’d think by now that CNN wouldn’t be so stupid to ever use the best precursor to inserting bias into a story by using “so-called“.
12:37 pm
Its amazing to watch these liberals wring their hands about Fox News, but when confronted with the fact other news channels are biased to the left they just deny it.
Anyone can turn on MSNBC and watch the interviews done with Republican/Democrat pundits and candidates. They are interviewed completely different. Republicans are always pushed very hard on everything they say and are treated like hostile witnesses, while democrats are given a chance to talk and are never pressed to back up anything they say.
Its plainly obviously to most people that the media wans democrats to win this election. The media flat out ignores inconsistencies in what the dems say and they ignore their scandals.