The Mainstream Media’s Terrible Election Coverage
Nov 9th, 2007 by nick
A study by the Project for Excellence in Journalism reveals some interesting data about the Presidential Election 2008 coverage by the mainstream media so far. Among the findings:
- “In all, 63% of the campaign stories focused on political and tactical aspects of the campaign. That is nearly four times the number of stories about the personal backgrounds of the candidates (17%) or the candidates’ ideas and policy proposals (15%). And just 1% of stories examined the candidates’ records or past public performance…” This finding isn’t surprising, but it’s annoying. I’m not generally interested in how much money candidates raise or spend, or in the latest vicissitudes of the polls. I’d much prefer if the media presented candidates’ policy positions, and let the voters make up their minds based on that.
- “Just five candidates have been the focus of more than half of all the coverage.” Again, this isn’t surprising. The media seem to love front-runners, and anyone running behind in the polls can’t expect much coverage, either good or bad.
- “Overall, Democrats also have received more positive coverage than Republicans (35% of stories vs. 26%)…” Although ideally the media would be unbiased in their coverage, I can’t say I’m disappointed by this finding J It’s high time the media made up for its fawning over George W. Bush during the past two presidential elections.