How the Press Reported the 2008 General Election

The media coverage of the race for president has not so much cast Sen Barack Obama (D-IL) in a favorable light as it has portrayed Sen John McCain (R-AZ) in a substantially negative one, according to a new study of the media since the two national political conventions ended. Press treatment of Obama has been somewhat more positive than negative, but not markedly so. But coverage of McCain has been heavily unfavorable -- and has become more so over time. In the six weeks following the conventions through the final debate, unfavorable stories about McCain outweighed favorable ones by a factor of more than three to one -- the most unfavorable of all four candidates -- according to the study by the Pew Research Center's Project for Excellence in Journalism. As for Governor Sarah Palin (R-Alaska), her coverage had an up and down trajectory, moving from quite positive, to very negative, to more mixed. In the end, she also received less than half the coverage of either presidential nominee, though about triple that of her vice presidential counterpart, Sen Joe Biden (D-Delaware). The findings suggest that, in the end, Palin's portrayal in the press was not the major factor hurting McCain. Her coverage, while tilting negative, was far more positive than her running mate's.