Reply #34: "john kerry" source:time

[gottaB]

And so on. Here it is linked for convenience.

You could also do word counts. Or look at negative, vs. positive statements. The google news rankings are rough, but they are indiciative nonetheless. Of course there are wire stories repeated ad naseum, and many of the feature stories that mention John Kerry for instance will be about Howard Dean or Wesley Clark. The overall picture, however, does not seem strongly biased against Kerry.

However you slice it, Kerry will not be disadvantaged by his gender or his race or his pile of money. Those things do influence how or whether the press covers a candidate.

What you're seeing lately with the dropoff in coverage is roughly reflective of Dean's surge in fundraising and rise in the New Hampshire polls. For a while, Kerry was considered a frontrunner and garnered the most media attention, as you can see by the graph at Interesting Times.

Clark's splash is all about big money, and perhaps celebrity, for what that's worth. For a while it seemed that he might poll well enough to justify frontrunner status, but with his pullout in Iowa that's less certain. Expect his press coverage to dwindle unless or until he can establish himself in an early primary state--look to Arizona.

Third place is not bad for Kerry considering that Dean has a comfortable lead in New Hampshire, Gephardt leads in Iowa, and Edwards leads in South Carolina.