Obama and MSNBC Media Bias

Coverage Positive towards Democrats, Negative towards Republicans

Oct 30, 2008 Martha R. Gore

Obama clearly found a friend in MSNBC as its idealogical liberal leanings have been reported to show favoritism in its TV news reporting and shows.

Obama apparently has the liberal idealogical backing of MSNBC as shown by statistics reported by the Project for Excellence in Journalism (PEJ) "The Color of News: How Different Media Have Covered the General Elections (10/29/08).

Obama, MSNBC and the PEJ Study

Coverage of MSNBC, the other two cable stations and the nightly network newscasts was done in a study which examined 2,412 stories from 48 outlets during the time period from September 8 to October 16. The report breaks down the coverage of tone by specific media sectors---print, cable news, network television and online. The Project, which is part of the Pew Research Center in Washington D.C. is funded by the Pew Charitable Trusts.

Idealogical Divide Between Channels

The study suggests that there really is a liberal ideological divide between two of the three channels in regard to the campaign. Obama was clearly favored by MSNBC, receiving more positive coverage than McCain.

  • MSNBC stood out for having less negative coverage of Obama than the press generally (14% of stories vs. 29% in the press overall) and for having more negative stories about McCain (73% of its coverage vs 57% in the press overall.)
  • MSNBC was more positive toward Democrats and more negative toward Republicans.

These findings augment information from a broader report on campaign media coverage released a week earlier entitled "Winning the Media Campaign: How the Press Reported the 2008 General Election." That study showed that in the media overall---a sample of 43 outlets studied in six weeks following the conventions through the last debate---Obama's coverage was somewhat more positive than negative (35% vs. 29%), while McCain's, in contrast, was substantially negative (57% vs 14% positive). That report concluded that was reflected and magnified in the direction of the polls.

Comparisons Between Media

The study also showed that Fox News was somewhat more positive to McCain (22% vs14% of press overall). CNN's coverage lay somewhere in the middle of the cable spectrum and generally more negative than the press overall. The nightly network newscasts of ABC, CBS and NBC tends to be more neutral. On line, polling appears to drive the news and on the front pages of newspapers, which often have day-after stories, things are more negative toward McCain.

From this report and the statistics from the polls, when it comes to the coverage of the campaign for president in 2008, where one goes for news makes a difference in whether voters will go for McCain or Obama.

The copyright of the article Obama and MSNBC Media Bias in American Affairs is owned by Martha R. Gore. Permission to republish Obama and MSNBC Media Bias in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.
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Nov 2, 2008 10:31 AM
Guest :
The media have been criticized throughout the campaign because of a perceived bias in reporting. This Pew poll is interesting because it shows how the media covered the campaign. I think the study paints an accurate version of how this campaign has been covered. It shows that the media focuses more positive coverage toward a front-runner. I think that is human nature, when people are winning we usually chose to not focus on their negatives. It is much easier to be negative when someone is faltering.
It is important to remember that this does not mean that the media is slanted toward Obama. The coverage of McCain has not been negative because he is a Republican, but because of how he has run his campaign. The political media, just as like the sports media, is more willing to critique a candidate’s performance when he is struggling during a campaign season.
Politico reporters John F. Harris and Jim Vandehei put it best in their story about the negative media coverage of the McCain campaign. “McCain’s campaign is going quite poorly and Obama’s is going well. Imposing artificial balance on this reality would be a bias of its own,” they wrote.
This poll shows how the media frames campaigns. The media have focused its coverage on McCain’s failures and Obama’s successes. They are overly-concerned with the winner and loser. At the same time, people like to know who is winning and what the other candidate has done wrong, or needs to do better to have a chance to win. That’s why people look at tracking polls to see how the campaign is shifting from one person to the other. The media should deemphasize the horserace aspect of campaigns, in favor of more substance. However, it runs the risk of alienating viewers so it will probably not happen.


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