Think Tank finds that ABC, NBC and CBS were tougher on Barack Obama than on John McCain

[kevinmc]

In study, evidence of liberal-bias bias

Cable talking heads accuse broadcast networks of liberal bias -- but a think tank finds that ABC, NBC and CBS were tougher on Barack Obama than on John McCain in recent weeks.

LA Times

Haters of the mainstream media reheated a bit of conventional wisdom last week.

Barack Obama, they said, was getting a free ride from those insufferable liberals.

Such pronouncements, sorry to say, tend to be wrong since they describe a monolithic media that no longer exists. Information today cascades from countless outlets and channels, from the Huffington Post to Politico.com to CBS News and beyond.

But now there's additional evidence that casts doubt on the bias claims aimed -- with particular venom -- at three broadcast networks.

The Center for Media and Public Affairs at George Mason University, where researchers have tracked network news content for two decades, found 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.

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

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............

[Motown_Johnny]

1. the think tank must be a bunch of liberals..... that's the ticket

[pdxmom]

2. This isn't surprising to me. I've been thinking all along that, yes, Obama

is getting more coverage than McSame, but that the coverage he was getting was not positive coverage. with McSame's coverage, it's more along the lines of "maverick" and "foreign policy experience" type of coverage...much more positive and very little negative.

[kevinmc]

3. I knew it too ... I am glad someone finally confirmed it.... n/t

[butterfly77]

4. There is also a double standard..

they ask Obama certain questions that they would never ask mccain, and they ask these questions over and over and over again and again hoping that Obama will change his answer in some way so that they can jump on it and make it an issue. I am so tired of these commentators asking about this surge.

I don't give a damn if the surge worked or not, we all know what happen that led up to the surge, and all of the games the republicons were playing at the time. I was so tired of hearing them repeat the same lines about, defeatism,stay the course, and how they wanted victory but they could never define victory or winning and still haven't.

These pundits never keep asking mccain to define his answers, I want them to keep following up the same as Katie Couric did to Obama asking the same question three times when Obama had already answered.. I also want McCain to define why we need to pay Iraqis to stop fighting each other and how long this has been going on and when he expects to end it if he were president.

[kevinmc]

6. You're right. ==ask Obama certain questions that they would never ask mccain== n/t

[NJmaverick]

5. About time this BS myth was dispelled n/t

[SoCalDem]

7. The "media" would not have to even worry about bias, if they would just do one thing

Point a camera and STFU..

Oldsters may remember that this is what made CNN famous.. They used to do just that..

The development and proliferation of "shows" are the reasons why we are where we are...

ANYONE can say ANYTHING, and it suddenly becomes "news".

A News-ken or News-barbie with a microphone suddenly becomes the "decider" of what we "need to know"..

How many times have we heard this phrase:

"We're watching this story and will report to if you anything important happens".... How do THEY know what WE will think is IMPORTANT..

Instead of telling us that YOU'LL watch it FOR us, why not just SHOW it to us, STFU, and let US decide if it's "important"..

[truedelphi]

10. But then we'd never ever be offered the salient conversations about which

Candidates wear flag lapel pins all the time!!

or which candidates do the power bump thing-ee with their wives.(When they aren't attending secret terrorist organized meetings.)

[Leftist Agitator]

8. I love how they preface their little report by mentioning the HuffPo...

As if it has its own television presence, not to mention the massive, captive audience of the network "knews".

(Oh, and my apologies if HuffPo DOES have a TV presence... I haven't had cable for going on 7 years)

That makes it possible for rightists to erroneoulsly claim that the "Meedyas librul! Especially that thar internet is infest'd wit them thar libruls! I done saw that they hate McCain, and love that there Hussein!"

:eyes:

How did that go again? Oh, YES! Stop the world, I want to get off!

[fortyfeetunder]

9. Why should this be of any surprise?

Anyone who is not part of the WASP establishment is subject to doubt and intense scrutiny!

:sarcasm:

[Guy Whitey Corngood]

11. It still is the L-I-B-E-R-A-L MEDIA! It's true because I say so. n/t