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July 28, 2008                                            
                                          Contact: Donald Rieck

MEDIA BASH BARACK (NOT A TYPO)

Study Finds Obama Faring Worse On TV News Than McCain

Barack Obama is getting more negative coverage than John
McCain on TV network evening news shows, reversing Obama’s lead in good press
during the primaries, according to a new study by Center for Media and Public
Affairs (CMPA).  The study also finds
that a majority of both candidates’ coverage is unfavorable for the first time
this year.  According to CMPA President
Dr. S. Robert Lichter, “Obama replaced McCain as the media’s favorite candidate
after New Hampshire.  But now the networks are voting no on both
candidates.”

MAJOR FINDINGS:

Since the primaries ended, on-air evaluations of Barack
Obama have been 72% negative (vs. 28% positive).  That’s worse than John McCain’s coverage,
which has been 57% negative (vs. 43% positive) during the same time period.

This is a major turnaround since McCain and Obama emerged as
front-runners in the early primaries.  From the New Hampshire
primary on January 8 until Hillary Clinton dropped out on June 7, Obama’s
coverage was 62% positive (v. 38% negative) on the broadcast networks; by
contrast, McCain’s coverage during this period was only 34% positive (v. 66%
negative).

Obama ran even farther behind McCain on Fox News Channel’s
Special Report with 79% negative comments (v. 21% positive), compared to 61%
negative comments (v. 39% positive) for McCain since June 8.  During the primaries Obama had a slight lead
in good press on Fox, with 52% favorable comments (v. 48 % unfavorable),
compared to 48% favorable (v. 52% unfavorable) for McCain. 

Obama’s bad press has come at a time when he was much more
visible than McCain.  Since June 8, he
has been the subject of 120 stories on the three network evening news shows,
50% more than John McCain’s 80 stories.

Examples of Obama’s evaluations:

Positive: “Obama
came to Baghdad and he brought his star power with him…..hundreds of U.S.
troops and State Department personnel mobbed Obama at the embassy here.” –Terry
Moran, ABC

Negative: “You
raised a lot of eyebrows on this trip saying, even knowing what you know now,
you still would not have supported the surge.  People may be scratching their heads and saying, ‘why’?” – Katie Couric,
CBS

Negative:  “Far
more Americans say John McCain would be a good commander in chief than Obama” –
Jake Tapper, ABC