Summer MinorWhere Is The Liberal Bias?
July 28th 2008 10:50
There's been a long known whining about "Liberal bias!" that conservatives like to toss around. While they conveniently ignore the reality of media outlets being big businesses and therefore would be shooting themselves in the foot if they held a liberal biases, the constant whining often does a great job of boosting moral. What they are really do is binding together those who think that if they do not have the power to tell everyone else what to do and say then they are somehow being trampled on.
Finally it seems someone has actually looked at the reality of this and is seeing what many of us already knew. The so-called liberal bias is really nothing more than "Wah! You said 1 bad thing about my guy while only saying 5 bad things about the other guy!" The bias is often hardly liberal. Enter that liberal notion of reality:
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.
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.
The conservatives have been hand wringing for a while now that Obama has higher numbers in the press, more articles about him and more time spent discussing him. What they choose to ignore, however, is that the majority of that time the discussions are negative. While his every move is scrutinized and inspected McCain has been given a free pass to do and say as he pleases. In media coverage quanitity does not always reflect quality.
Back on July 8th Delores Williams at Politics Corner made a similar post, claiming that Obama was being given the upper hand because there were a greater number of articles about him. And I responded in comment then that the numbers do not reflect bias on his side. Finally it seems the news is catching up to what the rest of us already new. Now if only we can get the conservatives to accept it. I won't be holding my breath.
My comment reply:
I disagree. the media has been far more in love with McCain that Obama. His name may register more in numbers, but it takes more than just numbers to mean anything.
McCain has been given quite the free pass on many of his comments. I have barely heard any reaction from mainstream media about certain comments McCain has made or have seen them delve into his past the way that Obama has been. The increase in articles referring to him is more because his every word is analyzed back and forth while every person he has every known is run down to question how patriotic he is. Little has been done to look at McCain's questionable past, his flip flopping on certain issues, or even just calling him out when he makes errors in his speeches.
When there is one article about McCain holding a fundraiser to three articles questioning is Obama is too black, a communist, and not going to get any white votes the favor is clearly not swinging towards Obama, despite having more press. Just look at AP Chairman Dean Singleton for example.
You are right that the numbers don't lie, however in this case that's not a good thing.
McCain has been given quite the free pass on many of his comments. I have barely heard any reaction from mainstream media about certain comments McCain has made or have seen them delve into his past the way that Obama has been. The increase in articles referring to him is more because his every word is analyzed back and forth while every person he has every known is run down to question how patriotic he is. Little has been done to look at McCain's questionable past, his flip flopping on certain issues, or even just calling him out when he makes errors in his speeches.
When there is one article about McCain holding a fundraiser to three articles questioning is Obama is too black, a communist, and not going to get any white votes the favor is clearly not swinging towards Obama, despite having more press. Just look at AP Chairman Dean Singleton for example.
You are right that the numbers don't lie, however in this case that's not a good thing.
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