The Center for Media and Public Affairs a non-profit, non-partisan research organization, which is affiliated with George Mason University did a study and produced a press release entitled: Study: TV News Bashes Romney, Boosts Horse Race. I knew there was bias against Romney in the news, but didn’t realize it was obvious to so many people.
According to the study: Frontrunner Mitt Romney is getting by far the most negative press of the GOP field, according to a new study of television news coverage by the Center for Media and Public Affairs at George Mason University. The study also found that the campaign horse race is getting over six times as much coverage as the candidates’ positions on policy issues. According to CMPA director and George Mason University professor Robert Lichter, “The media love a horse race and hate a frontrunner.”
This study covered 118 stories on the Republican primaries from January 1 to the January 10 (2012), New Hampshire primary on the evening newscasts of ABC, CBS, NBC, and FOX (the first half hour of Fox News Channel’s “Special Report”, which is most like the network news shows in content and presentation). This is the first release from CMPA’s ongoing 2012 Election News Watch Project.
Bad News for Romney Mitt Romney was the only major candidate to receive a majority of negative evaluations by sources and reporters, on both the broadcast network nightly news and FOX “Special Report.” (We measured evaluative comments about the candidates’ behavior, past records, issue positions, personal character, etc. However, we excluded comments about how they were faring in the campaign horse race.)
Broadcast Results On the broadcast networks, evaluative comments of Romney were 78% negative vs. only 22% positive. By contrast, on-air judgments of Ron Paul were 73% positive vs. 27% negative, evaluations of Jon Huntsman were 71% positive vs. 29% negative, Rick Santorum’s evaluations were 56% positive vs. 44% negative, and comments about Newt Gingrich were 52% positive vs. 48% negative. Other candidates received too few evaluations to be statistically meaningful.
FOX Results Romney fared slightly better on FOX “Special Report”, than on the networks, with 63% negative vs. 37% positive evaluations. By contrast, Ron Paul fared less well than he did on the networks, with evenly balanced coverage — 50% negative and 50% positive comments. Rick Santorum did best on FOX with 63% positive vs. 37% negative judgments. These were the only candidates who received enough evaluations on FOX for meaningful analysis.
I knew that MSNBC was 100% in the tank for Obama followed closely by the other major networks, but was amazed at the negative attitude coming from Fox who supposedly is fair and balanced. According to the study 2/3 of the news reports concerning Romney on one Fox show “Special Report” was negative. That’s only one show. Fox runs 24 hours a day.
The New York Times ran an article on January 17, 2012 entitled ‘A Spare Lectern and Little Left to Chance at Republican Debate’. The article covered a debate prep session with Bret Baier and other Fox pundits involved in the debate. According to the Times article: “It is one of the quirks of the 2012 campaign: the number of debates seems not to have diminished their significance or the expectation that they should create a media moment. In fact, as the Republican field shrinks, Mr. Baier and Fox view themselves as one of the last lines of defense to fully litigate Mr. Romney’s record before millions of viewers.”
I found that last line especially interesting. Baier sees his job as someone who needs to fully litigate Mr. Romney’s record. The word litigate is defined as: ‘to make the subject of a lawsuit; contest at law.‘
To prove or disprove my theory that the media is showing extreme bias against Mitt Romney I did a search on google.com and used the search words Romney, CPAC. Here’s the list of article titles that came up today in that search:
CBS: Romney has to persuade voters — not tell them — he’s the right candidate
MSNBC: Romney retools stump speech to emphasize leadership
Daily Beast: CPAC’s Enthusiastic Crowd Polled for Romney and Cheered for Palin
Washington Post: Mitt Romney, CPAC and the chance of brokered convention
Chicago Tribune: At CPAC, It’s Rick vs. Mitt: Dueling GOP candidates make their conservative pitch
Associated Press: Romney Tops Santorum in CPAC Straw Poll
State Column: Rick Santorum: Mitt Romney rigged the CPAC straw poll
Talk Radio News: Why Mitt Romney Won The CPAC Straw Poll
Politico (blog): Romney worked the CPAC straw poll
CNN: Surging, stagnating, staying relevant in GOP race
The Guardian: CPAC settles for Mitt Romney’s ‘severe conservative’ routine
New York Post: Rick Santorum dismisses Romney’s Maine, CPAC wins; suggests Romney may have paid for CPAC votes
USA Today: Romney to stick with conservative message
Los Angelas Times: Santorum says he backs working women, hints CPAC poll was rigged
The Week Magazine: Mitt Romney’s disputed CPAC and Maine wins: What they mean
Christian Service Monitor: CPAC: After a tough week, Romney wins conservative straw poll
My research has convinced me that the media is indeed biased against Governor Romney. The proof is in the pudding, as they say. My next question is, why? This is supposition on my part, but I think I’ve figured it out. The media leans left and favors the democrat party. That is a given, and not even disputed anymore by anybody. Since there is only one democrat running for president in the 2012 election the media will report in favor of that democrat. This seems purely logical, right? If the media is targeting one republican candidate above the other candidates then they must figure that candidate to be their biggest threat when it comes to their candidate winning the election.
Since Governor Romney is the man receiving the negative attention from the media, it stands to reason that the candidate that the current occupant of the White House doesn’t want to run against is Romney. Promoting his competitors to win the republican nomination would be a slick way to prevent Obama having to face Romney in the general election. He might be forced to defend his record, instead of debating social issues with someone like Rick Santorum.
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