Saturday, January 21, 2012

Left and Right Media Are Most Highly Negative In Their Romney Coverage

From a study conducted by the Center for Media and Public Affairs at George Mason University.

Any emphasis in the following quotes was added by me.

-Frontrunner Mitt Romney is getting by far the most negative press of the GOP field

-Mitt Romney was the only major candidate to receive a majority of negative evaluations by sources and reporters, on both the broadcast network nightly news and FOX “Special Report.”

-On the broadcast networks, evaluative comments of Romney were 78% negative vs. only 22% positive. By contrast, on-air judgments of Ron Paul were 73% positive vs. 27% negative, evaluations of Jon Huntsman were 71% positive vs. 29% negative, Rick Santorum’s evaluations were 56% positive vs. 44% negative, and comments about Newt Gingrich were 52% positive vs. 48% negative.

-Romney fared slightly better on FOX “Special Report”, than on the networks, with 63% negative vs. 37% positive evaluations. By contrast, Ron Paul fared less well than he did on the networks, with evenly balanced coverage -- 50% negative and 50% positive comments. Rick Santorum did best on FOX with 63% positive vs. 37% negative judgments

-There were over six times as many stories on the campaign horse race as there were on the policies of the candidates (105 vs. 16 stories). Even when the candidates’ backgrounds are added to the comparison, the horse race outpaced coverage of their records, personalities, and policies by a margin of over 3 to 1 (105 vs. 31 stories). In this respect FOX and the broadcast networks were very similar.

It is clear that Fox is almost as opposed to Romney as the leftist media outlets. It is also clear that they are carrying water for their former colleague, Santorum. Also painfully obvious is the motivation that all the networks (Fox included) have of pushing a tabloid story line of the race rather than substantive issues.

11 comments:

Lionhead said...

I would urge readers to review the funding sources of this organization at:

http://www.cmpa.com/news/CMPA%20FUNDING.pdf

Draw your own conclusions.

Anonymous said...

Dan thank you for posting this. Romney has an uphill battle from all sides.

FOX disgusts me, and I've never been a viewer, other than now and again for a specific reason.

Unfortunately, people like my mother watch it every day, and actually believe they are fair and balanced. Ha ha. Like her, many older folks don't bother to get any news or perspective online or anywhere else.

I try to help my mom out with info now and again, telling her the things she hears about Romney are taken out of context ALL the time. But she's probably never going to bother getting info anywhere else. She does read her newspaper every day.

I detest FOX as much as I do Rush, Palin, Levin, and various other clowns.

-Martha

Terrye said...

lionhead:

I stopped watching Fox because of their bias. I saw it myself. I don't need to follow your link...

Anonymous said...

Martha,

My dad and step mom watch Fox several hours a day. I was at their home a few days before the Iowa caucus and commented that it looked like Romney may win. My step mom said that she hoped it was Romney or Gingrich and that she was disappointed that Perry had fizzled. I couldn't believe what I was hearing. How can any Romney supporter think that Gingrich is an acceptable choice? It is because she watches Fox only and gets a heaping dose of false and unbalanced.

DanL

Lionhead said...

@Martha, You might know Fox is joining forces with the Univ. of So. Florida through financial aid & speakers to their functions. In addition, Fox has hired an ex-Soros advisor to one of his media groups, to come onboard with them.

Not only does Mitt have an uphill battle, but we all do as another MSM outlet is moving to the "dark side."

Anonymous said...

My mom also watches Fox every day and this summer when Perry was making his big splash she was somewhat enamored of Perry (because Fox told her to be). I emailed her some of the great articles produced here are Rightspeak in the Perry chronicles and her eyes were opened as to what a loser, fraud, and crook Perry is.

DanL

Terrye said...

Sometimes I think they just want to keep the whole thing going as long as they can for ratings...it is all about ratings..and they might figure that 4 more years of Obama will be better for them in terms of content.

I don't know, but it really is obvious. I don't expect them to suck up to Romney, but I have caught some outright lies on there. The first time I heard that I was shocked because I had watched Fox for years..but it just more common to hear things that I knew were not true and so I stopped listening and watching.

Anonymous said...

Ha ha, Dan. We have our work cut out for us! I also have relatives who are very much enamored with Paul. But heck, next to Newt, I am too.

-Martha

Anonymous said...

Martha,

I would gladly vote for Paul over Newt. And if Newt won the nomination I would gladly vote for Paul as a third party candidate. I agree with Paul about 50%, but then he goes a lot further into crazy land and I say, what the ^&*( is that? But he still has integrity and principles, unlike Gringrich, who has none.

DanL

DanL

Anonymous said...

DanL

I completely agree with you regarding Gingrich. Mark my words, a Gingich nomination will collapse the GOP.

It is quite obvious that Gingrich will never win against Obama. Gingrich would be toast due to his character flaws and checkered past by July if he is the nominee. A strong third party candidate like Paul could squeak past Obama with the youth vote.

I think Paul would only run 3rd party, if the GOP candidate was so flawed and stood no chance of winning the general
election like Gingrich. Gingrich actually actively fought against having Paul reelected as Texas Rep back in the day that Gingrich was Speaker. So I do not think there is any love lost there.

Anonymous said...

Paul has wended his way into my heart during this campaign. He is sincere, honest, and well intentioned. He is nothing like the self-serving dirtbag now leading in SC.

-Martha