Following weeks of fawning coverage of Barack Obama, we now have a media study--by the usual suspects--claiming that the media coverage has been overwhelmingly negative of the Obaminator.
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...
The media center's most recent batch of data covers nightly newscasts beginning June 8, the day after Hillary Rodham Clinton conceded the Democratic nomination, ushering in the start of the general-election campaign. The data ran through Monday, as Obama began his overseas trip...
That was a reversal of the trend during the primaries, when the same researchers found that 64% of statements about Obama -- new to the political spotlight -- were positive, but just 43% of statements about McCain were positive.
In other words, the study was crafted to cover the time period when Obama did, in fact, come under criticism for flip-flopping on nearly every major policy he had articulated. And as this study tries to absolve the network media outlets of bias, it stops just before all 3 networks sent their anchors to follow Obama like lovesick school girls.
Naturally, those who want to believe this fluff take it at face value. But Just One Minute notes,
The CMPA scores statements (i.e., words) as positive or negative; images don't count. So if you think that the endless coverage of Obama with US troops, generals, foreign leaders and adoring crowds were neutral, then you can take this result semi-seriously, although there is still the vast pre-ponderance of "neutral" air-time devoted to Obama.
They'll do anything to convince the willing that there is no bias in media.
Newsbusters has a story on the Obamessiah's appearance at the UNITY convention of minority journalists. I guess it was ok for them to leave their objectivity at the door.
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