The study by the Project for Excellence in Journalism and the Joan Shorenstein Center on the Press, Politics and Public Policy, to be released Monday, also portrays the political press as a hidebound institution out of touch with the desires of citizens.
Among the findings:
• Stories focused more on fundraising and polls than on where candidates stood on the issues, despite a public demand for more attention to the policies, views and records of the candidates.
• The public's attention to campaign news is higher now than it was at similar points in the past two elections, but that interest is only shared by less than one in four people.
• Five candidates — Democrats Clinton and Barack Obama and Republicans Giuliani, Mitt Romney and John McCain — received more than half the coverage. Elizabeth Edwards, the cancer-stricken wife of Democrat John Edwards, received almost as much media attention as her husband.
• Democrats, overall, got more coverage — and more positive ink and airtime — than Republicans.
• Obama enjoyed the friendliest coverage of the presidential field; McCain endured the most negative. That was due in part to the media's focus on fundraising; Obama raised more than expected and McCain raised less.
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I think this report shows just what we knew to be true in the first place: the media is way too far to the left. That is apparent in almost every prime time major network broadcast. These findings aren't surprising, just scary. If Hillary gets elected, one reason will be because the media pushed her. Not many people that I know of want to hear much about her. Regular citizens don't care about the majority of the things reported in the media, they want real issues and real stories brought to their attention and addressed. I hope on of these days they will get it right.