Many Recognize Media's Pro-Obama Bias, Democrats Prefer CNN

Photo of Brent Baker.

“Far more Americans believe that the press coverage has favored Barack Obama than think it has favored Hillary Clinton,” a just-released survey, from the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press, discovered in determining 37 percent recognize a bias in favor of Obama. Even 35 percent of Democrats “see a pro-Obama bias” compared to 45 percent of Republicans and 40 percnt of independents.

The poll, of about 1,000 Americans taken in late May, found about the same percentage of Republicans and Democrats rely on MSNBC for campaign news, but:

Far more Republicans (24%) than Democrats (10%) get most of their campaign news from Fox [News Channel], while the opposite is true for CNN: 24% of Democrats look to CNN compared with just 13% of Republicans.

Reliance on the Internet for campaign news has jumped 12 points since 2004 while those primarily reading newspapers or watching TV news has fallen. Specifically, those who “say they get most of their news about the election from television” fell 10 points since 2004 as those relying on newspapers dropped 12 points, but “as many people now cite the Internet as cite newspapers as their main source of campaign news (29%); just 17% cited the Internet in September 2004.”

Story Continues Below Ad ↓

(On the bias question, Pew didn't ask about coverage of John McCain, but given the media's adulation for Obama, it's hard to imagine a future poll comparing coverage of the two party nominees won't confirm an even greater percent of the public see media advocacy for Obama, especially if McCain strongly pushes any conservative policies.)

Some brief excerpts from “Many Say Coverage is Biased in Favor of Obama; Primary Wrapup: Even As Obama Controversies Widely Registered,” posted June 5:

Nearly four-in-ten (37%) say that in covering the Democratic race, news organizations have been biased toward Obama while just 8% say they have been biased toward Clinton; 40% say news organizations have shown no bias in their coverage. Substantial minorities of Republicans (45%) and independents (40%) say the press has been biased toward Obama; somewhat fewer Democrats (35%) see a pro-Obama bias.

....

Among TV news outlets, the major cable networks are the dominant source for campaign news. Nearly half of the public rely on CNN (22%), the Fox News Channel (16%), or MSNBC (9%) for most of their campaign news. Fewer than three-in-ten (28%) rely on one of the three major broadcast networks and ever fewer (16%) rely on local TV news.

Roughly equal proportions of Republicans and Democrats say they rely on Network TV, local TV or MSNBC Cable News for campaign coverage. For Fox and CNN, however, there are significant partisan differences. Far more Republicans (24%) than Democrats (10%) get most of their campaign news from Fox, while the opposite is true for CNN: 24% of Democrats look to CNN compared with just 13% of Republicans.

....

Seven-in-ten Americans say they get most of their news about the election from television, which is about the same as in December (71%) but down 10 points since September 2004. About three-in-ten cite newspapers (29%), which is largely unchanged from December and a decline of 12 points since September 2004. As many people now cite the internet as cite newspapers as their main source of campaign news (29%); just 17% cited the internet in September 2004.

PDF with all the questions and survey details.

For dozens polls of journalists, check the MRC's “Media Bias Basics” section. For a bunch of previous surveys on how the public recognizes the liberal tilt of reporters, see the “How the Public Views the Media” subsection.

—Brent Baker is Vice President for Research and Publications at the Media Research Center


Comments Policy

All comments are owned by whoever posted them and are subject to our terms of use. They should not be assumed to represent the views of NewsBusters.

Viewing options

Select your preferred way to display the comments and click "Save settings" to activate your changes.

Remember earlier this year

Remember earlier this year when everyone was making a big deal about folks using Barack's full name (Barack Hussein Obama) when referring to him, complaining that no one else was ever referred to by their full name? In fact, I think the folks at MSNBC were some of the loudest whiners. Well, here's a new story today posted at MSNBC talking about the "secret" meeting between Obama and Hill, and it starts like this:

"WASHINGTON - Hillary Rodham Clinton met late Thursday with Barack
Obama
, a day after saying she would end her quest for the Democratic
nomination and endorse the Illinois senator."

They even used her full name in the photo caption, but didn't use Barack's full name anywhere in the piece. Just another example of the pro-Obama media. You can read the full piece here.

Pro Democrat Bias

35% of Democrats see pro Obama bias. That's a remarkable figure, considering most Democrats will support Obama.  It supports the near unassailable contentions that on air media bias today is unprecedented.

One can argue that in the depths of Watergate the media displayed tremendous emnity towards Nixon. But even in those days, there were professional standards for reporting. 

Now the network “newsmen” are former party hacks. Tim Russert and Chris Matthews at NBC, Chris Cuomo and George Stephanopolous at ABC. Diane Sawyer, although she worked for Richard Nixon has done a very good job of remaking herself as a liberal Democrat. The advocacy is open and unabashed now. I don’t think these “journalists” even realize it. 

How is that a remarkable

How is that a remarkable figure?  Hillary supporters account for about 50% of the voters.  Did it ever occur to you that they might have a slanted view of the coverage of Obama???

Once again, the media can't report on things that don't happen.  If Bill Clinton jams his finger in some reporter's face and goes ballistic, that's going to get covered.  Obama can't help it if his wife doesn't go around jamming her finger and going ballistic.  If Hillary goes on national TV and blatantly lies about a trip to Bosnia, it's going to get a lot of coverage.  Does this mean that they should also devote an equal amount of time to Obama for not lying about something???

This whole debate is just rediculous!  If Hillary didn't want so much negative press coverage, her and Bill shouldn't have been doing so many negative things that would get covered.

So how come everyone but Fox

So how come everyone but Fox treated the Michelle Obama "mean American" comments with kiddy gloves, while Bill gets slammed every night? How come we talk about Bosnia 24/7, but ignore Obama thinking there's 57 states, that his uncle that doesn't exist helped the Soviets liberate a concentration camp, and the fact that he sees dead soldiers? Obama does just as many negative things, they just don't get any coverage outside of the conservative media.

FAR more?

Far more Republicans (24%) than Democrats (10%) get most of their campaign news from Fox [News Channel], while the opposite is true for CNN: 24% of Democrats look to CNN compared with just 13% of Republicans. 

I love how 14% (24-10) is FAR MORE than 11% (24-13). Wow, a huge, whoppin' 3% difference.

A government that robs Peter to pay Paul can always depend on the support of Paul.
- George Bernard Shaw, 1944

THE TRUTH

This is a little old and a little long from Ken Blackwell but worth reading from Ken Blackwell - Columnist for the New York Sun and former Ohio Secretary of State.

  
  It's an amazing time to be alive in America . We're in a year of firsts in this presidential election: the first viable woman candidate; the first viable African-American candidate; and, a candidate who is the first front-running freedom fighter over 70. The next president of America will be a first.
 We won't truly be in an election of firsts, however, until we judge every candidate by where they stand. We won't arrive where we should be until we no longer talk about skin color or gender. Now that Barack Obama steps to the front of the Democratic field, we need to stop talking about his race, and start talking about his policies and his politics.
 The reality is this: Though the Democrats will not have a nominee until August, unless Hillary Clinton drops out, Mr. Obama is now the frontrunner, and its time America takes a closer and deeper look at him. Some pundits are calling him the next John F. Kennedy. He's not. He's the next George McGovern. And it's time people learned the facts.
 Because the truth is that Mr. Obama is the single most liberal senator in the entire U.S. Senate. He is more liberal than Ted Kennedy, Bernie Sanders, or Mrs. Clinton.    Never in my life have I seen a presidential frontrunner whose rhetoric is so far removed from his record. Walter Mondale promised to raise our taxes, and he lost. George McGovern promised military weakness, and he lost. Michael Dukakis promised a liberal domestic agenda, and he lost. Yet Mr. Obama is promising all those things, and he's not behind in the polls. Why? Because the press has dealt with him as if he were in a beauty pageant..  Mr. Obama talks about getting past party, getting past red and blue, to lead the United States of America . But let's look at the more defined strokes of who he is underneath this superficial "beauty." 
 Start with national security, since the president's most important duties are as commander-in-chief. Over the summer, Mr. Obama talked about invading Pakistan, a nation armed with nuclear weapons; meeting without preconditions with Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who vows to destroy Israel and create another Holocaust; and Kim Jong II, who is murdering and starving his people, but emphasized that the nuclear option was off the table against terrorists - something no president has ever taken off the table since we created nuclear weapons in the 1940s. Even Democrats who have worked in national security condemned all of those remarks. Mr Obama is a foreign-policy novice who would put our national security at risk.
 Next, consider economic policy. For all its faults, our health care system is the strongest in the world. And free trade agreements, created by Bill Clinton as well as President Bush, have made more goods more affordable so that even people of modest means can live a life that no one imagined a generation ago. Yet Mr. Obama promises to raise taxes on "the rich." How to fix Social Security? Raise taxes. How to fix Medicare? Raise taxes. Prescription drugs? Raise taxes. Free college? Raise taxes. Socialize medicine? Raise taxes. His solution to everything is to have government take it over. Big Brother on steroids, funded by your paycheck
 Finally, look at the social issues. Mr. Obama had the audacity to open a stadium rally by saying, "All praise and glory to God!" but says that Christian leaders speaking for life and marriage have "hijacked" - hijacked - Christianity. He is pro-partial birth abortion, and promises to appoint Supreme Court justices who will rule any restriction on it unconstitutional. He espouses the abortion views of Margaret Sanger, one of the early advocates of racial cleansing. His spiritual leaders endorse homosexual marriage, and he is moving in that direction. In Illinois , he refused to vote against a statewide ban - ban - on all handguns in the state. These are radical left, Hollywood , and San Francis co values, not Middle America values.
 The real Mr. Obama is an easy target for the general election. Mrs. Clinton is a far tougher opponent. But Mr. Obama could win if people don't start looking behind his veneer and flowery speeches. His vision of "bringing America together" means saying that those who disagree with his agenda for America are hijackers or warmongers. Uniting the country means adopting his liberal agenda and abandoning any conflicting beliefs. 
 But right now everyone is talking about how eloquent of a speaker he is and - yes - they're talking about his race. Those should never be the factors on which we base our choice for president Mr. Obama's radical agenda sets him far outside the American mainstream, to the left of Mrs. Clinton.
 It's time to talk about the real Barack Obama. In an election of firsts, let's first make sure we elect the person who is qualified to be our president in a nuclear age during a global civilizational war.
  
Subject: Kind of scary, wouldn't you think Remember--"God is good, and is in time, on time,every  time."
 According to The Book of Revelations the anti-christ is:
 The anti-christ will be a man, in his 40s, of MUSLIM descent, who will deceive the nations with persuasive language, and have a MASSIVE Christ-like appeal....the prophecy says that people will flock to him and he will promise false hope and world peace, and when he is in power, will destroy everything.    Is this anti-christ,.......... OBAMA??
 I STRONGLY URGE each one of you to repost with this email as many times as you can!  Each opportunity that you have to send it to a friend or media outlet...do it!  If you think I am crazy,.  I'm sorry but I refuse to take a chance on the "unknown" candidate.


 

This seems to be another

This seems to be another case of BDS to me.  How in the World can anyone compare how a woman with a deplorable reputation and track history of lying, dirty dealing, and a host of other bad behavior, is covered in the media with how a guy who appears to have gotten though his life pretty cleanly is covered?  Hillary Clinton has been one of the most disreputable people in our political history.  What in heaven's name makes people think that there will be a minimum of negative reporting about her?

The woman started her campaign with a lie when she said the announcement video she showed in the early spring of 2007 was just shot, when you could clearly see flowers blooming outside the window when NY was still coming out of winter, and she's lied and scammed her way ever since.  She spent her whole campaign attacking... Obama, Bush, Republicans, just attack after attack.  Nothing positive, just attacks.  So what makes anyone feel that the press coverage of someone like this should be anywhere near like the coverage of someone who's largely positive on the campaign trail and has some blemishes on his record but nothing to compare to Hillary?

I find it laughable that so many people think that Hillary's acts and past should be overlooked so she can be fairly compared to a guy who hasn't made a career of deciving, lying, hiding files, etc.  If Hillary didn't want the press covering her negative stunts, maybe she should have not made the stunts.

HRC's Wikipedia article

Bruzilla: Hillary Clinton has been one of the most disreputable people in our political history.

Sometime in the spring of 2007, I noticed that Hillary's Wikipedia entry had a "Controversies" section. There were around 16 entries - some were joint with Bill, but others were hers alone. Then I checked Bill's entry along with the other recent presidents. The most any of them had was around 8.

Don't bother looking for that section now - it's been scrubbed.

A government that robs Peter to pay Paul can always depend on the support of Paul.
- George Bernard Shaw, 1944

Anyone who lived through

Anyone who lived through the 1990s doesn't need Wiki to know all the crap that the Clintons pulled, from Travelgate to the pardons.  Hillary has gotten a free pass on all this stuff during the primaries.  About the toughest criticism she has gotten in the media on these matters has been the distillation of all her wrongs into "she has very high disapproval ratings." 

Most all of the negative press she's been getting during the primaries all stem from new crap that her and Bill have been up to.  It just bugs the hell out of me that someone like Hillary can lie, cheat, scam, and manipulate every way she can, and when she gets called on it she points to Obama, who's been running an extremely clean campaign, and yell "WHY AREN'T YOU LOOKING AT HIM THAT CLOSELY?"  Could it be because he's been running a clean campaign?

Hillary was whining about all the coverage of her not paying her bills and running up huge debts.  Obama's campaign has been paying off it's debt every month, so what is there for the media to report on?  Bill Clinton plays the race card, it gets reported on.  Obama hasn't, so what is there to report on?  Lots of people keep wanting and hoping to find dirt on Obama, and when they can't they just refuse to accept that it's because Obama is a pretty clean guy... it has to be becaus someone is giving him a free pass.

"Lots of people keep

"Lots of people keep wanting and hoping to find dirt on Obama, and when
they can't they just refuse to accept that it's because Obama is a
pretty clean guy... it has to be becaus someone is giving him a free
pass."

Yep, apart from attending a racist, America-hating church for 20 years, with close associations to America-hating, racist people, including domestic terrorists, plus somehow being able to buy a house he couldn't afford without the help of a guy who was just convicted of a dozen or more charges, including money laundering, he's as clean as a babies bottom.

Nothing to see here, move along.

Okay

No one is saying that Hilary's misdeeds should be overlooked. What people are saying is that almost all of Obama's gaffes and misdeeds are being overlooked. You don't hear anything...except online and maybe on Fox about Obama's 57 state remark or how he sees dead people. If McCain had said those things the MSM would be repeating them constantly and asking if he was senile. That's the point of the study....not how many mistakes Hilary has made.

Now, pause for just a

Now, pause for just a moment and think about what you just wrote: "What people are saying is that almost all of Obama's gaffes and misdeeds are being overlooked."  Do you see a problem here?  Like how do people know about Obama's gaffes and misdeeds if they are being overlooked?  I've never cheated on my wife, so is the media not reporting on me cheating on my wife because they like me, or because there's nothing to report?  If people know that Obama is making gaffes and misdeeds, how else could they know about them unless they were being covered???

 Look at the recent coverage of the Rezko story.  The guy is convicted of fraud, and now guys like Hannity and others are all piping up about how the media isn't covering this story.  The reality is that way back when, when the authorities started investigating Rezko, they also investigated Obama and others he was supporting.  They found that Obama had done nothing illegal or even wrong.  When the story broke that Rezko was indicted, the media immediately clamoured about how Obama needed to be investigated.  When the authorities told them that this had already been done, and Obama hadn't done anything wrong, the story died a natural death.  Now that the actual conviction is putting Rezko back in the headlines, we once again have ignorant people claiming the media isn't covering the Obama angle and giving him a pass, when the reality is the media did cover the story but there was nothing to cover.

Along similar lines, Tom Delay made a rediculous statement yesterday where he said that "nobody knows anything about this guy, but he's a Marxist."  Well, if nobody knows anything about the guy, then how do you know he's a Marxist?  The truth is that a lot of folks know a lot about the guy, and yes... we know he's a Leftist/Marxist/Socialist.  So why can't he just be honest and say "based on what I know of the guy, he's a Marxist"?  Why does Tom Delay, of all people, feel compelled to reach into the Clinton echochamber and use the false attack that "nobody knows about this guy"? 

"The woman started her

"The woman started her campaign with a lie when she said the
announcement video she showed in the early spring of 2007 was just
shot, when you could clearly see flowers blooming outside the window
when NY was still coming out of winter"

Obama probably did too, back in 2006:

On the January 22nd edition of "Meet the Press,"Tim Russert and
Obama had the
following exchange:

Russert: "When we talked back in November of '04 after your election, I
said, 'There's been enormous speculation about your political future.
Will you serve your six-year term as United States senator from
Illinois?'"

Obama: "I will serve out my full six-year term. You know, Tim, if
you get asked enough, sooner or later you get weary and you start
looking for new ways of saying things. But my thinking has not
changed."

Russert: "So you will not run for president or vice president in 2008?"

Obama: "I will not."

A year later, he enters the race. Technically, I guess one can choose to be naive and believe him when he said he had no intention of running, but still, has anyone in the media called him on it yet?

No one believes Hillary should get a pass. We just don't think Obama should get one either, and he clearly is.

Speaking of CNN...

...I understand that Wolf Blitzer had predicted, or had repeated the prediction, that 50,000 people would be at BHO's rally in northern Virginia yesterday.  It turns out that it was more like 10,000.  It will be interesting to see how CNN reports it.

"Disappointing start to Obama's campaign" or "Thousands attend Obama rally"?