shore oil

In spite of Senator Barack Obama’s flawless trip overseas and Senator John McCain’s campaign doing everything that it could to make him look stupid, McCain is still getting wide coverage. McCain in a golf cart with former president George H. W. Bush is not really news worthy. McCain canceling a trip to an off-shore oil platform wasn’t really big news. McCain in a grocery store in middle America (Bethlehem, Pennsylvania) is not news. Yet, McCain, the darling of the media, started complaining about his news coverage.

I would hope that McCain would stop whining and go and make some news. If he goes overseas and speaks to hundreds of thousands of folks, that’s news and the networks will cover him.

Of course, reality is different than the picture that the McCain camp is painting. Despite complaints, McCain is getting plenty of good press.

From the Huffington Post:

The Center for Media and Public Affairs at George Mason University, where researchers have tracked network news content for two decades, found that ABC, NBC and CBS were tougher on Obama than on Republican John McCain during the first six weeks of the general-election campaign.

You read it right: tougher on the Democrat.

During the evening news, the majority of statements from reporters and anchors on all three networks are neutral, the center found. And when network news people ventured opinions in recent weeks, 28% of the statements were positive for Obama and 72% negative.

Network reporting also tilted against McCain, but far less dramatically, with 43% of the statements positive and 57% negative, according to the Washington-based media center.