News Coverage Changes, and So Does Tone of Campaign: Shift may be traceable to "SNL"

[DeepModem Mom]

NYT: March 5, 2008
News Coverage Changes, and So Does Tone of the Campaign
By KATHARINE Q. SEELYE

Over the last few days, the tone of the Democratic contest seems to have shifted, with Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton’s campaign more buoyant and Senator Barack Obama’s more defensive. That shift may be traceable in part to the “Saturday Night Live” show on Feb. 23, when, back from the writers’ strike, it mocked the news media for treating Mr. Obama more gently than it treated Mrs. Clinton. Mrs. Clinton amplified that view later in a debate, and her aides stoked it all week, practically browbeating reporters.

Now comes evidence that the publicizing by the Clinton campaign and the news media may have helped flip the coverage as it questioned Mr. Obama more aggressively.

Mr. Obama was the subject of 69 percent of all campaign articles last week, from Feb. 25 to March 2, and Mrs. Clinton was the subject of 58 percent of articles about the election, according to a study by the Project for Excellence in Journalism. The organization, part of the Pew Research Center, specializes in empirical methods to evaluate the news media.

Mr. Obama generated more coverage than any candidate in any other week this year. “The media scrutinized everything from his legislative record to his connections to Louis Farrakhan, and frequently addressed the question of whether journalists have been too soft on the front-runner for the Democratic nomination,” the study said. In addition, many articles about Antoin Rezko, a Chicago builder who was a fund-raiser for Mr. Obama, reported on the start of his trial on kickback charges. Mr. Obama is not implicated in the case. But the two were involved in a land deal.

Mrs. Clinton’s coverage level last week was also the highest for her, the report said, and it was less negative than it had been. “With the Clinton media narrative focused on her being a candidate firmly in combat mode, she enjoyed a respite from recent coverage that had focused on her post-Super Tuesday losing streak and her campaign’s strategic shortcomings,” the study said....

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/05/us/politics/05press.html?_r=1&hp&oref=login

[aquart]

1. Yeah, fair play's a bitch.

Bitch is the new black.

[ClassWarrior]

2. Except... "New study shows: Media bias -- against Obama?"

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2008/3/4/114715/4802/287/468568

NGU.

[ClassWarrior]

5. .

[Gman]

3. 'bout damn time

Obama's been treated like a little girl by the media. If he can't stand the heat (which he can't since he's already walked out of one press conference that got lukewarm) he needs to quit now for the good of the country.

[bleowheels]

4. The last 5 days saw reporters and the media trying to "make the story" rather

than "cover the story". What were Andrea Mitchell and the like going to do if Hillary lost the majory of the Tuesday primary's? Oh yeah, it would be back to the newsrooms and back to the boring daily grind. Gone would be the jetting back and forth, sitting around all day, etc. Now, Matthews, Wolf and everyone gets to pontificate for at least another 3 months. They don't have to go out and find the story. The story can be Hillary and Barack, all day, everyday.