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Study: Media Elite's Campaign News More
Biased than Talk Radio
According to a new study, those news organizations which hold
themselves up as the most neutral and professional -- big newspapers, the
broadcast networks and taxpayer-subsidized National Public Radio -- are
actually producing campaign stories that are the most tilted in favor of
Democrats, while online news and talk radio have actually been the most
balanced.
The study, released Monday from the Project for Excellence in
Journalism (PEJ) and Harvard's Shorenstein Center, found newspapers and
broadcast TV outlets devoted far more time to covering the Democratic
candidates than the Republicans and that the tone of those stories was much
more favorable to the Democrats, mirroring the results of a Media Research
Center study released in August. PEJ discovered that on NPR "stories about a
Democratic candidate were more seven times more positive than negative" and
"the tone of coverage in the 30-minute evening newscasts was much more
positive toward the Democrats than Republicans" while the morning shows were
nearly as tilted as the evening news, with Democrats benefitting from 43.4
percent positive stories vs. 17.6 percent negative stories, compared to 26.8
percent positive vs. 31 percent negative for Republicans.
For the PEJ study, "THE INVISIBLE PRIMARY -- INVISIBLE NO LONGER," go
to: www.journalism.org
For the MRC's study, "Rise and Shine on Democrats: How the ABC, CBS and
NBC Morning Shows Are Promoting Democrats On the Road to the White House,"
go to: www.mrc.org
The PEJ study looked at a wide array of media -- broadcast and cable
TV, liberal and conservative talk radio, public radio, newspapers and the
Internet -- but in most cases used sampling techniques to keep the number of
stories to a manageable amount. For daytime cable TV, for example, the group
looked at just a half-hour per day of CNN, MSNBC and Fox; for newspapers,
the researchers only read stories that appeared on the front-page.
Nevertheless, the study -- which looked at campaign coverage from
January 1 through May 31 -- offers additional evidence that the elite news
media are tipping in favor of the Democrats, in both amount of coverage and
the tone of coverage. According to the report, here's how the researchers
measured the tone of each campaign story:
"While reading or listening to a story, coders tally up all the
comments that have either a negative or positive tone to the reporting.
Direct and indirect quotes are counted. In order for a story either positive
or negative, it must have 1.5 times the amount of positive or negative
comments (with an exception for 2 to 3, which is coded as neutral). If the
headline or lead has a positive or negative tone, it should be counted twice
into the total value. Also counted twice for tone are the first three
paragraphs or first four sentences, whichever comes first."
Using that methodology, the researchers found that the news sources
that hold themselves up as the most objective -- newspapers, the three
broadcast morning shows, the three broadcast network evening newscasts and
NPR -- were in fact the most tilted, all in favor of the Democrats. At the
same time, cable news, commercial talk radio and online news were overall
more balanced (with conservative and liberal talk radio basically cancelling
each other out).
[This item, by Rich Noyes, was posted Tuesday on the MRC's blog,
NewsBusters.org: newsbusters.org ]
Some key details from the massive report:
# National Public Radio: According to the report, "like the media
overall, the first 30 minutes NPR's Morning Edition produced more stories
about Democratic candidates than Republicans (41% vs. 24%). What was
different was how little negative coverage Democrats received, especially
compared with all other media. Stories about a Democratic candidate were
more seven times more positive than negative: 41% positive vs. 6% negative."
For Republicans, the comparable figures are 30 percent positive vs. 20
percent negative.
# Newspapers: The researchers examined the front pages of 13 daily
newspapers, checking the New York Times every day and a dozen other papers
every other day. "Democrats got much more positive coverage in the daily
papers examined than they did elsewhere. Fully 59% of all stories about
Democrats had a clear, positive message vs. 11% that carried a negative
tone. That is roughly double the percentage of positive stories that we
found in the media generally....For the top tier Democrats, the positive
tilt was even more the case than for Democrats in general."
# Evening Newscasts: "The tone of coverage in the 30-minute evening
newscasts was much more positive toward the Democrats than Republicans." An
accompanying chart shows that nearly four in ten evening news stories about
Democrats (39.5%) were rated as positive, while just 17.1 percent were coded
as negative. For Republicans, the figures were reversed: 37.2 percent
negative, vs. 18.6 percent positive.
According to the raw data tables appended to the report, the CBS
Evening News with Katie Couric had the biggest tilt in favor of the
Democrats and against Republicans, while the NBC Nightly News with Brian
Williams was the most balanced (but still pro-Democratic). See:
www.journalism.org
# Morning Shows: Unlike the MRC's study of TV's morning shows, this
study looked at just the first half-hour of each two- or three-hour program.
But the report found the same tilted agenda uncovered by MRC: "The [morning]
shows produced almost twice as many stories focused on Democratic candidates
than on Republicans (51% vs. 27%)."
Exploring the raw data tables appended to the report, the morning shows
look nearly as tilted as the evening news, with Democrats benefitting from
43.4 percent positive stories vs. 17.6 percent negative stories, compared to
Republicans 26.8 percent positive vs. 31 percent negative.
# Cable, Online and Talk Shows: The PEJ study found cable news overall
to be just slightly pro-Democratic, with Democratic coverage 34% positive
vs. 25% negative, compared with 29 percent positive and 30 percent negative
for the GOP. MSNBC was the most pro-Democratic, Fox the most pro-Republican,
with CNN somewhere in between.
The online sample -- a survey of the top stories at CNN.com, Yahoo!
News, MSNBC.com, Google News and AOL News -- contained very few campaign
stories, just 104 in five months. The tone of these stories was practically
the same for both Republicans and Democrats, with twice as many positive
stories as negative ones.
For talk radio, the group looked at both conservative and liberal talk
radio, with the results basically balancing each other out -- 14 to 18
percent positive for the Democrats and Republicans, respectively, compared
to 67 and 70 percent negative. With one exception, the liberal hosts were
the most partisan, never praising any of the top GOP candidates or
criticizing Barack Obama or John Edwards. Hillary Clinton, however, the
subject of more negative than positive reviews on the liberal shows -- 17
percent positive vs. 33 percent negative.
Some news stories on this study have misleadingly charged that
Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton has received mostly negative
coverage, such as Tuesday's New York Post:
"If there's no such thing as bad publicity, Hillary Rodham Clinton is
walloping Barack Obama -- earning twice as many negative stories, according
to a new media survey.
"The former first lady has been the chief media obsession of the TV
campaign, generating more coverage -- good and bad -- than any other
candidate, according to a study by the Project for Excellence in
Journalism." See: www.nypost.com
But to reach that conclusion, one must count conservative talk show
hosts like Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity alongside supposedly objective
news sources like ABC, CBS, NBC and the New York Times.
While the report does not detail the tone of Clinton's by each media
source, it does report that conservative talk radio accounted for "nearly
20%" of the 294 stories examined, and that "nearly nine-out-of-ten Clinton
segments in conservative talk (86%) were clearly negative in tone." Apply
some arithmetic and the tone of Clinton's coverage -- without conservative
talk radio -- instantly becomes mostly favorable: roughly 33% positive, vs.
26% negative.
In other words, while Hillary may not be the darling of either liberal
or conservative talk radio, the media elite are still showering her with
lots of good press.
http://www.mrc.org/cyberalerts/2007/cyb20071031.asp#5
Biased than Talk Radio
According to a new study, those news organizations which hold
themselves up as the most neutral and professional -- big newspapers, the
broadcast networks and taxpayer-subsidized National Public Radio -- are
actually producing campaign stories that are the most tilted in favor of
Democrats, while online news and talk radio have actually been the most
balanced.
The study, released Monday from the Project for Excellence in
Journalism (PEJ) and Harvard's Shorenstein Center, found newspapers and
broadcast TV outlets devoted far more time to covering the Democratic
candidates than the Republicans and that the tone of those stories was much
more favorable to the Democrats, mirroring the results of a Media Research
Center study released in August. PEJ discovered that on NPR "stories about a
Democratic candidate were more seven times more positive than negative" and
"the tone of coverage in the 30-minute evening newscasts was much more
positive toward the Democrats than Republicans" while the morning shows were
nearly as tilted as the evening news, with Democrats benefitting from 43.4
percent positive stories vs. 17.6 percent negative stories, compared to 26.8
percent positive vs. 31 percent negative for Republicans.
For the PEJ study, "THE INVISIBLE PRIMARY -- INVISIBLE NO LONGER," go
to: www.journalism.org
For the MRC's study, "Rise and Shine on Democrats: How the ABC, CBS and
NBC Morning Shows Are Promoting Democrats On the Road to the White House,"
go to: www.mrc.org
The PEJ study looked at a wide array of media -- broadcast and cable
TV, liberal and conservative talk radio, public radio, newspapers and the
Internet -- but in most cases used sampling techniques to keep the number of
stories to a manageable amount. For daytime cable TV, for example, the group
looked at just a half-hour per day of CNN, MSNBC and Fox; for newspapers,
the researchers only read stories that appeared on the front-page.
Nevertheless, the study -- which looked at campaign coverage from
January 1 through May 31 -- offers additional evidence that the elite news
media are tipping in favor of the Democrats, in both amount of coverage and
the tone of coverage. According to the report, here's how the researchers
measured the tone of each campaign story:
"While reading or listening to a story, coders tally up all the
comments that have either a negative or positive tone to the reporting.
Direct and indirect quotes are counted. In order for a story either positive
or negative, it must have 1.5 times the amount of positive or negative
comments (with an exception for 2 to 3, which is coded as neutral). If the
headline or lead has a positive or negative tone, it should be counted twice
into the total value. Also counted twice for tone are the first three
paragraphs or first four sentences, whichever comes first."
Using that methodology, the researchers found that the news sources
that hold themselves up as the most objective -- newspapers, the three
broadcast morning shows, the three broadcast network evening newscasts and
NPR -- were in fact the most tilted, all in favor of the Democrats. At the
same time, cable news, commercial talk radio and online news were overall
more balanced (with conservative and liberal talk radio basically cancelling
each other out).
[This item, by Rich Noyes, was posted Tuesday on the MRC's blog,
NewsBusters.org: newsbusters.org ]
Some key details from the massive report:
# National Public Radio: According to the report, "like the media
overall, the first 30 minutes NPR's Morning Edition produced more stories
about Democratic candidates than Republicans (41% vs. 24%). What was
different was how little negative coverage Democrats received, especially
compared with all other media. Stories about a Democratic candidate were
more seven times more positive than negative: 41% positive vs. 6% negative."
For Republicans, the comparable figures are 30 percent positive vs. 20
percent negative.
# Newspapers: The researchers examined the front pages of 13 daily
newspapers, checking the New York Times every day and a dozen other papers
every other day. "Democrats got much more positive coverage in the daily
papers examined than they did elsewhere. Fully 59% of all stories about
Democrats had a clear, positive message vs. 11% that carried a negative
tone. That is roughly double the percentage of positive stories that we
found in the media generally....For the top tier Democrats, the positive
tilt was even more the case than for Democrats in general."
# Evening Newscasts: "The tone of coverage in the 30-minute evening
newscasts was much more positive toward the Democrats than Republicans." An
accompanying chart shows that nearly four in ten evening news stories about
Democrats (39.5%) were rated as positive, while just 17.1 percent were coded
as negative. For Republicans, the figures were reversed: 37.2 percent
negative, vs. 18.6 percent positive.
According to the raw data tables appended to the report, the CBS
Evening News with Katie Couric had the biggest tilt in favor of the
Democrats and against Republicans, while the NBC Nightly News with Brian
Williams was the most balanced (but still pro-Democratic). See:
www.journalism.org
# Morning Shows: Unlike the MRC's study of TV's morning shows, this
study looked at just the first half-hour of each two- or three-hour program.
But the report found the same tilted agenda uncovered by MRC: "The [morning]
shows produced almost twice as many stories focused on Democratic candidates
than on Republicans (51% vs. 27%)."
Exploring the raw data tables appended to the report, the morning shows
look nearly as tilted as the evening news, with Democrats benefitting from
43.4 percent positive stories vs. 17.6 percent negative stories, compared to
Republicans 26.8 percent positive vs. 31 percent negative.
# Cable, Online and Talk Shows: The PEJ study found cable news overall
to be just slightly pro-Democratic, with Democratic coverage 34% positive
vs. 25% negative, compared with 29 percent positive and 30 percent negative
for the GOP. MSNBC was the most pro-Democratic, Fox the most pro-Republican,
with CNN somewhere in between.
The online sample -- a survey of the top stories at CNN.com, Yahoo!
News, MSNBC.com, Google News and AOL News -- contained very few campaign
stories, just 104 in five months. The tone of these stories was practically
the same for both Republicans and Democrats, with twice as many positive
stories as negative ones.
For talk radio, the group looked at both conservative and liberal talk
radio, with the results basically balancing each other out -- 14 to 18
percent positive for the Democrats and Republicans, respectively, compared
to 67 and 70 percent negative. With one exception, the liberal hosts were
the most partisan, never praising any of the top GOP candidates or
criticizing Barack Obama or John Edwards. Hillary Clinton, however, the
subject of more negative than positive reviews on the liberal shows -- 17
percent positive vs. 33 percent negative.
Some news stories on this study have misleadingly charged that
Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton has received mostly negative
coverage, such as Tuesday's New York Post:
"If there's no such thing as bad publicity, Hillary Rodham Clinton is
walloping Barack Obama -- earning twice as many negative stories, according
to a new media survey.
"The former first lady has been the chief media obsession of the TV
campaign, generating more coverage -- good and bad -- than any other
candidate, according to a study by the Project for Excellence in
Journalism." See: www.nypost.com
But to reach that conclusion, one must count conservative talk show
hosts like Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity alongside supposedly objective
news sources like ABC, CBS, NBC and the New York Times.
While the report does not detail the tone of Clinton's by each media
source, it does report that conservative talk radio accounted for "nearly
20%" of the 294 stories examined, and that "nearly nine-out-of-ten Clinton
segments in conservative talk (86%) were clearly negative in tone." Apply
some arithmetic and the tone of Clinton's coverage -- without conservative
talk radio -- instantly becomes mostly favorable: roughly 33% positive, vs.
26% negative.
In other words, while Hillary may not be the darling of either liberal
or conservative talk radio, the media elite are still showering her with
lots of good press.
http://www.mrc.org/cyberalerts/2007/cyb20071031.asp#5
