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Media Backs Obama Over Romney, MSNBC More Negative Than Fox, Nonpartisan Study Shows

Pew
November 2, 2012

Media coverage of President Barack Obama over the past several months has been significantly more favorable compared to that of his Republican challenger Mitt Romney, a recent Pew analysis found.

According to the review of more than 2,400 stories from nearly 50 media outlets, coverage of Obama was 19 percent favorable, 30 percent unfavorable, and 51 percent mixed.

Coverage of Romney, on the other hand, was 15 percent favorable, 38 percent unfavorable, and 47 percent mixed.

The difference in favorable versus unfavorable coverage for Romney (-23 points) was more than double that for Obama (-11 points).

The Pew study also examined the extent to which the two major "ideological" networks – MSNBC and Fox News – favored a particular candidate, and found that the left-wing MSNBC was significantly more slanted than it’s right-leaning counterpart.

More than 70 percent of MSNBC segments about Romney were negative, the study found, compared to just 3 percent that were positive, a ratio of 23-to-1.

Fox segments on Obama, meanwhile, were 46 percent negative and 6 percent positive, a ratio of just 8-to-1.

Mitt Romney recently took a swipe at MSNBC reputation for slanted coverage.

"I don’t know how closely you’re watching the president’s campaign," he told supporters Thursday at a campaign rally in Virginia. "My guess is you’re not seeing a lot of MSNBC."

The crowd laughed, then booed.

Published under: CNN , Media , MSNBC , TV News