Study Finds Media Harder on Obama than McCain

I’ve been saying for a while that McCain gets pass after pass. The only reason it really seems the coverage favors Obama over McCain is that Barack makes far fewer stupid blunders than does McCain. There is news there. No surprise. But De Magno Opere uncovers an LA Times pieces that talks about a new study done at The Center for Media and Public Affairs at George Mason University which finds coverage has been far more negative concerning Obama than it has of McCain. Both are covered negatively (which is good really if you define that as scrutiny – that’s the media’s job), but negativity is skewed more in favor of McCain than Obama:

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.

Another day, another wingnut talking point obliterated.