By Howard Kurtz
Researchers have now confirmed what press critics have been saying all along, that Fox News is much harder on Barack Obama and MSNBC much tougher on John McCain than the media in general.
The tone of CNN's coverage is somewhere in the middle, but more negative overall than the rest of the mainstream media.
Those are among the findings of a Project for Excellence in Journalism report, out today, which also concluded that the network evening newscasts tend to be more neutral -- and less negative -- toward the presidential candidates. The pro-Democratic tilt at MSNBC is not reflected on NBC News programs, the group says.
The numbers, as measured from Sept. 8 through Oct. 16:
Nearly three-quarters -- 73 percent -- of MSNBC's reports on McCain were deemed negative, compared to 57 percent in the media overall. Just 14 percent of the channel's Obama stories were negative, compared to 29 percent in the rest of the media. In the week of Sept. 8, when McCain was enjoying a post-convention bounce, MSNBC's negative stories on the Republican nominee outweighed positive stories by more than 7 to 1.
At Fox, 40 percent of the coverage of Obama was negative, while 40 percent of the McCain coverage was negative. That amounted to rough parity within the Fox universe, but the network was significantly harder on Obama and easier on McCain than others in the media world. Fox was also more favorably disposed toward Sarah Palin, with 37 percent of its stories positive, compared to 28 percent in the media generally.
CNN was the only one of the cable news networks at which all four candidates generated more negative than positive coverage. Thirty-nine percent of Obama stories on the network were negative, compared to 29 percent in the media overall. Sixty-one percent of its stories on McCain were negative, four percentage points higher than the media average.
The sheer volume of cable news devoted to the 2008 campaign -- 60 percent of its airtime -- was striking, compared to the average of 38 percent in the media generally, the report says.
The contrast between NBC (on "Nightly News" and "Today") and its cable sibling should reassure those who worry the broadcast network is heading left. On Palin, for instance, 42 percent of NBC's stories were positive -- twice as many as MSNBC's, and more favorable than Fox as well.
But there was a split between morning and evening coverage on the broadcast networks, with the first half-hour of the morning shows almost one-third more negative in tone than the nightly newscasts. This was especially true for the Republican candidates. Sixty-three percent of the morning show stories on McCain were negative and 39 percent of the Palin coverage was negative. In both cases, they were more negative than on the same networks' evening news.
Where did Obama fare best? On the front pages of the newspapers studied. Almost half -- 45 percent -- of the pieces about the Democratic nominee were positive, compared with 36 percent for the media overall. There were also fewer neutral stories, while the negative Obama reports -- 27 percent -- were close to the media average.
Similarly, McCain's most negative treatment was in the newspapers. Sixty-nine percent of the McCain stories studied were negative, compared to just 6 percent that were positive, an 11-to-1 imbalance.
The project examined the New York Times every day and two of these four every day: The Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, USA Today and the Wall Street Journal. Four out of eight other papers, from the Philadelphia Inquirer and Chicago Tribune to the Manchester Union-Leader, were also examined every day.
