The media’s coverage of John McCain is decidedly more negative than that of Barack Obama.

From the Project for Excellence in Journalism.

The media coverage of the race for president has not so much cast
Barack Obama in a favorable light as it has portrayed John McCain in a
substantially negative one, according to a new study of the media since
the two national political conventions ended.

Press treatment of Obama has been somewhat more positive than negative, but not markedly so.

But coverage of McCain has been heavily unfavorable—and has become
more so over time. In the six weeks following the conventions through
the final debate, unfavorable stories about McCain outweighed favorable
ones by a factor of more than three to one—the most unfavorable of all
four candidates—according to the study by the Pew Research Center’s
Project for Excellence in Journalism.

For Obama during this period, just over a third of the stories were
clearly positive in tone (36%), while a similar number (35%) were
neutral or mixed. A smaller number (29%) were negative.

For McCain, by comparison, nearly six in ten of the stories studied
were decidedly negative in nature (57%), while fewer than two in ten
(14%) were positive.

McCain did succeed in erasing one advantage Obama enjoyed earlier in
the campaign—the level of media exposure each candidate received. Since
the end of August, the two rivals have been in a virtual dead heat in
the amount of attention paid, and when vice presidential candidates are
added to the mix the Republican ticket has the edge. This is a striking
contrast to the pre-convention period, when Obama enjoyed nearly 50%
more coverage.

 

Whether or not this negativity towards McCain results in an Obama victory remains to be seen, but Obama isn’t complaining about the coverage he is receiving.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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