Barack Obama gets more media attention than John McCain does. But contrary to gripes about liberal bias, that coverage tends to be more negative.
During six weeks of network TV news coverage this summer, opinions expressed about Obama were 72 percent negative and 28 percent positive, according to a study by George Mason University’s Center for Media and Public Affairs. McCain also got more negative coverage than positive, but not nearly so much, with 57 percent negative and 43 percent positive.
Also, McCain’s flubs are less likely to receive media attention than Obama’s miscues. “Even McCain’s most blatant confusions, memory lapses and outright lies still barely cause a ripple,” New York Times columnist Frank Rich wrote, “whether he’s railing against a piece of pork he in fact voted for . . . or falsifying crucial details of his marital history in his memoirs, as the Los Angeles Times uncovered in court records last month.”
