http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5iIHbNjxgyh98CZcVL1vYRM6JBVNQD9220LG85Is media playing fair in campaign coverage?
By DAVID BAUDER
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For each of the weeks between June 9 and July 13, Obama had a much more significant media presence. The Project for Excellence in Journalism evaluates more than 300 political stories each week in newspapers, magazines and television to measure whether each candidate is talked about in more than 25 percent of the stories.
Every week, Obama played an important role in more than two-thirds of the stories. For July 7-13, for example, Obama was a significant presence in 77 percent of the stories while McCain was in 48 percent, the PEJ said.
Sure, there are some weeks Obama's going to make more news, said Tom Rosenstiel, the project's director.
But every week?
"No matter how understandable it is given the newness of the candidate and the historical nature of Obama's candidacy, in the end it's probably not fair to McCain," he said.
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More at the link, much more interesting stuff than I can quote.
This is more AP bias, some of their most blatant editorializing-as-news so far, and now they're taking aim at other news organizations.
I'm checking PEJ's website
http://journalism.org/and don't see any new article on the media supposedly not playing fair, so it looks as though Bauder contacted PEJ's director and pushed him until they got one comment that the greater number of stories on Obama is "probably not fair to McCain."
This AP story left out all mention of PEJ's article on how "Obama Rumors Get More Press Coverage" -- a situation where the greater number of stories isn't in Obama's favor.
Bauder quotes not only Rush Limbaugh (yes, just the "authority" to turn to for discussing whether the media is fair) but Rep. Eric Cantor, R-Va., with his comment about Obama's trip being just a "publicity stunt."
Paragraphs near the end of the AP article dismiss Obama as an "attractive commodity" for the media and suggest that with the "attention gap" supposedly being created, "it could leave the nation electing a president while the media is paying attention to someone else." Translation: McCain is the only real candidate, the one who'll be elected, while the press revels in an "infatuation" with this "attractive commodity" offered by the Democrats.
The final paragraphs have comments from the president of NBC News, saying it's funny this is now an issue when the media has been accused of being too cozy with McCain.
But overall, this is a hit piece, incredibly biased against Obama.