No surprises from Washington Whispers:
A new study by a conservative media watchdog group finds that the big three TV network’s morning shows are far more biased against the current GOP presidential field than they were to Democrats running in the 2008 election. What’s more, the Republicans challenging President Obama are facing caustic questions and getting less airtime than Democrats did four years ago.
The key points from the Media Research Center’s review of 53 weekday morning news interviews from January 1 to September 15:
- By a 5-to-1 margin, ABC, CBS, and NBC morning show hosts employed an adversarial liberal agenda when questioning this year’s Republican candidates.
- Four years ago, Democratic candidates faced questions that tilted more than two-to-one to the left, a far friendlier agenda for liberal politicians.
- In 2007, Democratic candidates were frequently tossed softball questions. This year’s interviews with Republicans have been much more caustic, with few chances for the candidates to project a warm and fuzzy image.
- Four years ago, top Democrats Hillary Clinton and John Edwards were given massive donations of airtime by ABC in the form of “town hall” meetings on Good Morning America. None of this year’s Republican contenders have been given a similar opportunity.
The study is due out tomorrow and was provided in advance to Whispers, It was written by Rich Noyes and Geoff Dickens of the Media Research Center which charts alleged bias of major TV networks.
The study was conducted to see if the GOP presidential candidates were getting their fair share of airtime, media attention, and balanced questions. What the two found was something of a double standard when it came to how the network morning shows covered Democrats and Republicans.
Much more here.