There's no doubt that Barack Obama is getting more media coverage than John McCain. Does that necessarily mean that Obama is getting the better part of the deal? Not in the least.
A recent study by the Center for Media and Public Affairs looked at the stories presented by the nightly news of ABC, NBC, and CBS. It found that 72 % of the stories about Obama were negative, but only 57 % of the stories about McCain were negative.
If you are thinking, "Who the hell is the Center for Media and Public Affairs? A lefty wing-nut group?" Well, not really. A study they released in 2006 found that the Democratic candidates were getting an easier time from the media during the primaries. That study was hailed by the likes of Rush Limbaugh as undeniable proof that liberal media bias.
McCain has been and remains the real media darling. Don't think so? Look at this way. Take the misstatements the McCain has made and pretend that Obama said them. Imagine what the media would be saying: "Obama confuses Sunni and Shia." "Obama flip-flops on veterans benefits, on abortion, on coastal drilling, and on time lines in Iraq." Let us not forget ABC's gambit of simply clipping Senator's McCain's errors from his interview with Katie Couric.
Which candidate would you rather be? The one under the media microscope, or the one who is getting ignored despite a virtually never ending stream of misstatements and outright gaffs?
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2 comments:
geez, now that you mention it even I've been cutting McCain plenty of slack (at least in my mind). It's hard to shake the effect of his appearances on Jon Stewart over the years - maybe because you just never see an old white guy put himself out there. Damn.
And now he's hiding behind Palin's skirt. The longer the media and the voting public ignore McCain under the assumption that they already know him, the better his chances of winning in November.
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