Rick Perry received the most favorable coverage of any candidate for president during the first five months of the race, but now Herman Cain is enjoying that distinction, according to a new survey which combines traditional research methods and computer algorithmic technology to code the level and tone of news coverage.
Perry lost the mantle of the candidate enjoying the most favorable treatment to Herman Cain two weeks ago, after the Florida straw poll in which Cain scored a surprise victory. Meanwhile, though he has often led in the polls, former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney has received less coverage and less positive coverage than the shifting casts of frontrunners -- and that remains true even now. He ranks second in the amount of attention received, and the tone of that narrative has been unwaveringly mixed.
One man running for president has suffered the most unrelentingly negative treatment of all: Barack Obama. Though covered largely as president rather than a candidate, negative assessments of Obama have outweighed positive by a ratio of almost 4-to-1. The assessments of the president in the media were substantially more negative than positive in every one of the 23 weeks studied. In no week during these five months was more than 10% of the coverage about the President positive in tone.
I can't decide if I want to run around telling all of the conservative assholes I know "I told you so!" or crawl back into bed and pull the covers over my head in frustration for the rest of the day.
The media was NEVER liberal, but it used to at least be fair.
I have a bumper sticker which reads: "The media is only as liberal as the conservative corporations that own it."
ReplyDeleteEnough said.
So true!
ReplyDeleteGryphen, Thanks for posting this! It's a great reminder of the need to restore the Fairness Doctrine.
ReplyDeleteBefore Reagan got rid of it in 1987, the "Fairness Doctrine" was the only way to truly keep things 'fair and balanced.'
The AP Principle says to ensure we keep Democracy intact we need to have a "diverse and antagonistic Press." This graph proves the MSM has been asleep on the job and they need to be called-out for it. As you did. And more should . . .
Here's an excellent article from FAIR about how we lost the Fairness Doctrine and why we need to restore it.
http://www.fair.org/index.php?page=2053
Yes, this is so sad. They used to be fair. And also I thought that a truly decent human being who became President and then fights for the rights of the people who voted for him, and those who didn't, would get some respect and support. Dumb me, right? Apparently not in this country, not by this press. They have no integrity.
ReplyDeleteI mistakenly listened to Mark Levine this afternoon on my car radio, as he was saying that our President is the "most evil person ever to occupy the office of the presidency" and how, "admit it, there's only one reason you don't criticize this administration, and you know what that reason is, I don't have to say it" and then how "the bankers (jews) elected this president, and now he has turned his back on the bankers, which is exactly what happened in Germany in the 1930s" and...for fuck's sake!! What is going on in this country that this is considered appropriate political discourse on mainstream radio? I wish I could be cute and snarky about it. But I am just sad.
ReplyDeleteI keep telling my friends that the so-called "liberal" commentators showed their true colors when one after the other they bailed on interviewing Joe about his book. They got the orders from on high and folded like a cheap tent in a light wind. Got no use for any of them anymore. All corporate shills, including some who won't be mentioned because they are the darlings of the left.
ReplyDeleteIt might have been fair when Walter Cronkite was around....that was some time ago.
ReplyDeleteI have been saying this FOREVER. There is no liberal media. The media is owned by corporations. God knows what happened to antitrust laws because now they are going around buying even more of the press. And spewing more lies. Huffington Post is NOT liberal. Look at who they hired.
ReplyDeleteI think OWS's message should be, "We can't be bought by big business." They are buying the media, the elections and riding on the backs of hard working Americans without feeling any obligation to give anything back. And when we fight back, we are the evil ones.
ReplyDeleteLooking at the fine print of how the media sources are selected, I may have stumbled on why Greta is so taken with Palin.
ReplyDelete"Fox's Greta Van Susteren, which is more narrowly focused on crime." (explanation of why GVS is excluded from the news sample)
there is no such thing as a liberal media.
ReplyDeleten times msnbc cable??...just gate keepers for the people in power.
truth is not allowed in american on the peoples airwaves nd that is why the internet is under attack.
there are 3 sides to politics and corporate interests.
the republican side the democratic side and the truth.
notice how the media refuses to investigate palin and her baby hoax?
notice how the OWS protesters are being vilified while the tea bags got great coverage?
stop supporting ALL mass media.
cancel your subscriptions to the times and the wash. post.
and most of all support the great sites o n the internet that are bringing you the truth.
and fight to keep the internet free because i warn you all it is under great attack by the government and their corporate owners.
so most important is to stay alert and do all you can to make sure the internet stays open and free.
Awww, Gryph and others who reminisce about a fair press.
ReplyDeleteI politely beg to differ.
In the early sixties I lived in New Delhi attached to a Foreign Correspondents team. Even then there were manipulations by a TV crew working for the much revered "Huntley Brinkley" Evening News.
There were peaceful demonstrations in the Indian Capital... peaceful that is,until the Huntley Brinkley guys' arrival. It was then that a few men in the front rows would act up, jostling, elbowing and stepping upon others' feet.
At some point one of their team bragged about hiring those agitators to make it more interesting!
We have seen it before, we shall seee it again... SSDD!
(Same Stuff, Different Day)
"Used to be fair"?! Tell that to Vice President Gore, who as a technocrat Congressman had sponsored and helped craft the legislation making the public Internet possible and never in his life claimed to have invented it!
ReplyDelete3:54 pm. Exactly.
ReplyDeleteForgive this addendum please, but whenever I think of Gore I bristle all the more at the notions of folk who bleat "Experience!" when kvetching about this President in particular.
ReplyDeleteI should think a resume including the following particulars would mark the maximum in the way of qualifications and experience for a potential President:
1) Farmer
2) Businessman (plus venture capitalist, you know)
3) Combat Veteran
4) Congressional Representative
5) United States Senator
and lastly: eight years in the Executive Branch as Vice President (and acknowledged as the lead man of the President's foreign policy team, no less)...
yet the individual I've described above is universally a laughing stock to those very fools, who found Governor Bush of Texas a more desirable choice.
Those same people, by the way, also endlessly ridicule the last legitimate businessman who "met a payroll" (also a farmer, as it happens) to occupy the Oval Office--the one who was our only Naval Academy graduate to fill that role, by the way, and who was booted to make way for the radical fiscal imprudence which vexes this nation ever since!
I can't agree more. The media in our country is in shambles. They're more focused on being "politically correct" than "factually accurate".
ReplyDeleteMakes you wonder why so many conservatives think the media has a liberal slant.
speaking of media...Joe McGinniss is on the air right now in AK with Mike Pocaro. This takes guts and belief in his journalism.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.iheart.com/#/live/3014/?autoplay=true
The mainstream media is a joke. They couldn't find "fair and balanced" journalism if it was placed directly in their hands.
ReplyDeleteAmerica is fast on its way of becoming a third-world hell hole because our politicians and press have largely been bought by greedy corporate interests. Without an independent press, our chances for true democracy are dimmed. If we don't change things soon, we'll be well on our way towards a feudal system of serfs and overlords. I never thought I would see this situation in the "Land of the Free, and the Home of the Brave," but it's really happening, folks.
Thanks for posting. But in a way you are just preaching to the choir. CNN is moving to the right, yet some people still say it's "too liberal."
ReplyDeleteI honestly think a lot of self-proclaimed conservatives have some sort of mental or psychological pathology. Nothing is ever conservative enough for them.
I wish these people would get it into their heads: If you think that everything is "too liberal", then maybe the problem is you.
BTW - Thank you for this research. It looks like the media is gearing up to keep the presidential race interesting. It would be bad for business if Pres. Obama had a clear lead and won easily.
ReplyDeleteBabygate coming up in the McGinniss interview after the break.
OT I just tuned in missed most of it =Listening to Joe's interview-Spoke of dominionism, Mentions chapter 19, wild ride. he's doing quite well and one of the named sources just called i in and Joe's filling in the blanks about Chuck Heath's underhanded tactics...
ReplyDeleteWish I heard the whole thing, but it sounds like he got a fair shake.
Liberal media? Right. What if Obama had floated the "9-9-9" tax plan? What do you think the coverage would be?
ReplyDelete"Makes you wonder why so many conservatives think the media has a liberal slant." Anon 5:13
ReplyDeleteI don't wonder why - I know it's because the conservative media tells them that.
Let's not kid ourselves - tv, newspapers - they are all businesses and profits are all that matter. They need controversy to increase ratings - who's gonna watch a quiet, peaceful demonstration?
This confirms what I suspected. So many times I've had to change the channel because Obama was being bashed. And I watch "liberal" shows.
ReplyDeleteNow they are all acting like Fox. Unfortunately, the lamebrains who watch without critical thinking all agree. You just have to check who will be on those Sunday political shows, to see which way the wind has been blowing for the last few years. McCain is on almost every week, even though he LOST the race. Then he makes assinine statements like "All the government rules have cost MILLIONS of jobs" Where - worldwide?
ReplyDeleteI hope this study gets the attention it deserves from... the MSM (sigh).
ReplyDeleteIt infuriates me that the MSM allows GOP to lie without correcting the liars or informing the viewers of inaccuracies (that would require the interviewer to be knowledgable). Thank God for Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert who added these #hashtags to recent tweets #IdontHaveFactsToBackThisUp [Herman Cain] and #NotIntendedToBeAFactualStatement [Jon Kyl saying in Congress that that abortions account for 90% of Planned Parenthood business].
The media has rolled over and accepted that 60+ votes are needed for ANYTHING (laws, confirmations, etc.) to pass the Senate. Thus they awkwardly construct headlines that a bill is "defeated" 50-49 (defeated with majority of yeas). How is the public supposed to know that in today's Senate 50-49 is a defeat? If the media won't inform the public, who will?
http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2011/10/a-modest-proposal-call-obstruction-what-it-is/246528/
Lastly, take a look at Congress' schedule for the next several weeks (tweeted by @JamieDupree):
Off this week, two 4-day weeks, off another week, a 5 day week, then off for Thanksgiving
Tweet URL:
http://twitter.com/#!/jamiedupree/status/125737042301812737
I have been saying this for awhile, and Nate Silver summed it up nicely:
ReplyDelete"I don’t think the media has a liberal bias or a conservative bias so much as it has a bias toward overreacting to short-term trends and a tendency toward groupthink."
The fact is is that President Obama is the establishment right now, so of course he is going to bashed more than a group of potential challengers.
It is part of the narrative cycle that requires the President be bashed. It is also part of the cycle that any sort of good news be over interpreted and become the base of the meme of The President as "The Comeback Kid" (look for the headline: "How Obama Got His Groove Back" in 6 months to a year).
It doesn't matter if the press excoriates the President at this point in the cycle, we're Americans - we have short attention spans - it will only matter in a year.
TheNastyLiberal,
ReplyDeleteI always HOWL with laughter when I hear teabagger buffoons declare that President Obama wasn't qualified enough to be president but Palin was!
That's right. The office of the Mayor of Wasilla: training ground of presidents.
The teabaggers don't give a shit about reason, the truth, logic, or their galling hypocrisy. They just spout total bullshit and are too fucking stupid to recognize the blaring cognitive dissonance that their messages prompt.
I will be SOOO glad when these assholes dry up and blow away.
Grampa McCain - Late to the party again!!
ReplyDeleteOn the floor today bitching about Obama's buses!!
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3096434/#44939446
McCain is still pissed he lost!!
This pisses me off:
ReplyDeleteOccupy Wallstreet's Gullible Occupiers
Imagine that ~ The Wall Street Journal disses the occupiers.
ABSOLUTELY! aholes.
ReplyDelete