TV's Low-Cal Campaign Coverage

Coverage in the early phase of a presidential campaign is critical, since many voters are still weighing their choices and making decisions at this point. To see how this year's coverage was shaping up, FAIR studied primary election coverage on the nightly broadcast network newscasts (ABC World News, CBS Evening News and NBC Nightly News) in the six weeks leading up to February 5, when 24 states held primaries or caucuses. From December 26, 2007, until February 5, 2008, the three nightly newscasts aired a total of 385 news stories about the election. This averages out to more than nine news stories on the election per night on network TV. With that kind of saturation, you'd think that the coverage would not only touch on the horse race and polling, but would shed light on policy platforms, economic plans, foreign policy goals and other substantive differences among what was then a wide-open field of candidates. You'd think that, after viewing or reading 385 news stories, you'd come away well-informed and ready to participate in a democracy. But, unfortunately, you'd be wrong.
http://www.fair.org/index.php?page=3368