Democrats Win Morning-Show Primary



Watching network morning show anchors interview the Democratic presidential candidates often makes you wonder if you’ve seen tougher interviews on overnight acne-care infomercials. Their questions are often so simple and promotional that you wish they’d just go ahead and wear their “Hillary!” or “Obama ‘08" buttons on the set.

There is no pretense of political balance. They are actively rooting for a Democratic victory next year, and they have the power to make a real difference. Notwithstanding their overall loss of audience in the last decade, ABC, CBS, and NBC morning shows draw nine times the audience of their cable-news competitors and are geared toward the mostly apolitical mainstream, which makes them an important free-media showcase for presidential hopefuls. A new study shows that if this year’s campaign coverage on the TV morning shows were a primary election, the Democrats would win in a landslide of attention and hyperbole.


Rich Noyes of the Media Research Center assessed all morning-show coverage on the Big Three from January 1 through July 31. In those 517 campaign segments, the networks offered nearly twice as many segments to Democrats as Republicans, a margin of 284 to 152. (Another 66 stories focused on both parties.) When the sample is narrowed down just to interviews with the candidates or their spouses and staffers, the morning shows gave out nearly three times as much free air time to Democrats (4 hours, 35 minutes) than they gave to Republicans (1 hour and 44 minutes).


ABC’s “Good Morning America” was the worst, with 119 segments on the Democrats to just 51 for the Republicans. And try this for impartiality, ABC-style: the network offered sprawling, positive “town hall” segments to only two presidential candidates so far this year: 38 minutes for John Edwards and 26 minutes for Hillary Clinton.


Hillary’s ABC town meeting was especially scripted, a platform so supportive that a former member of her 1993 health-care nationalization task force just happened to take the microphone to read to her a long softball question about whether she would boldly try, try again to blaze a trail to rescue the uninsured. Anchor Robin Roberts allowed Clinton to carry on (and on) uninterrupted for almost 18 of her 26 minutes with “the people.” During some of these long soliloquies, the former First Lady urged viewers to look up her campaign web site. ABC somehow failed to put a toll-free 800 number for Hillary’s campaign on screen to develop the full infomercial effect.


All three Democratic frontrunners received more individual attention than any of the top Republican candidates, with Hillary unsurprisingly receiving the most coverage of anyone, at 61 adoring minutes. The leading Republican was former liberal media darling John McCain, who attracted 31 minutes of coverage, much of it assessing how his campaign was falling apart.


Even Al Gore, a man the morning anchors love so much that CBS’s Harry Smith begged him to put on a Gore for President button, drew 29 minutes on the morning shows this year, giving this unannounced candidate more attention than any announced GOP contender except for McCain.


Rudy Giuliani drew only 26 minutes, and Mitt Romney attracted even less, 19 minutes. Worse still, the Republican segments highlighted problems and controversies, like Romney’s Mormonism and Giuliani’s messy, fractious private life.


By comparison, the babble about Democrats was, and continues to be, embarrassingly giddy. Take ABC’s Claire Shipman describing Hillary and Barack as both “white hot,” a diversity-enhanced clash of the titans. Hillary was an “unparalleled star,” with a “hot factor” boosted by “her ever-popular husband.” But wait, Obama, “with his fairy-tale family, has personal charisma to spare!” Someone needed to urge Shipman to come down off her puffy cloud of hype.


Then there’s the labeling – or better put, the utter lack of it. Not once did network reporters describe Hillary Clinton or John Edwards as a “liberal.” ABC’s Jake Tapper once dared to associate the word “liberal” with Barack Obama, but CBS and NBC never did. In an eye-rolling contrast, the three networks did apply the liberal label 12 times to....Rudy Giuliani, who certainly deserves it on the social issues, as did the unanimously pro-abortion, pro-gay Democrats. Except these are the networks, and love means never having to say you’re liberal.


The network morning shows are often attacked for being lighter than air, for ignoring substantive public issues in favor of human-interest stories, celebrity gossip, and food and fashion tips. This study of campaign coverage shows that even in the realm of “hard news,” the networks have a problem being equally airy and unchallenging for their audience when “white hot” Democrats grace the set.

• Read the MRC Special Report: Rise and Shine on Democrats
• Read the Press Release

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Liberals are people that will believe anything twice.

Yeah, good deal. The only press the repukes are getting are about faggots in the party trying to pay an undercover cop so he could give him a blow job, Ha Ha Ha Ho Ho Ho He He He,~LOL~.

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Life is good, the water is sweet. The ground keeps moving beneath my feet.

BTW, I'm so happy to see you sniveling like a 5 year old, Ha Ha Ha Ho Ho Ho He He He~LOL~.

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Life is good, the water is sweet. The ground keeps moving beneath my feet.

he was just trying to pee. hahahhahahah

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i'm the guy i've always wanted to be

And we know there's no corruption or illicit sex on the Democrat side of the asile, don't we boys?? What a bunch of hypocrits! The difference is, when a Republican is caught, the main stream press is all over the story like a cheap suit ... and the other Republicans insist that the louse resigns. When a Democrat does it, the press give them a pass and the story just blows over. Could this be the reason the Lefties hate Fox News so much ... I mean after all, they DO present both sides of the argument in a fair and balanced manner.

Vi

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Liberals are people that will believe anything twice.

Come on you dullard, they impeached Clinton for a blow job. I say hang em by their nuts. BTW this asshole they just caught trying to give a cop a blow job, He was the head repuke trying to impeach wild Bill, Ha Ha Ha, Justice is served.

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Life is good, the water is sweet. The ground keeps moving beneath my feet.

I AM NOT GAY!!!!!! hahhahhaha who yells that?

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i'm the guy i've always wanted to be

Vi Democrats don't run on FAMILY VALUES, They run on trying to help the poor and under privilaged. Since the Republicans do run on FAMILY VALUES they must be held to a higher standard. Vi, Fox news has been exposed for telling a lot of lies. FACTCHECK DOT COM My friend.

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The privilege of the writ of habeas corpus shall not be suspended, unless when in cases of rebellion or invasion the public safety may require it. United State Constitution, Art. I Sec. 9 Par. 2

"Dissent is the Highest form of Patriotism" -- Howard Zinn

from the tone of this thread it looks like the lefties are fine and dandy with this mass manipulation.

what tool could be more suitable for declaring government elites our saviors than the same "greedy corporate media" who would force feed us updates about other very important topics like paris hilton, another actor's DUI, some democrat's plan to save the whales, blah, blah, blah...

even stories that are quite devastating to the dems are turned into some twisted, satirical (?) form of praise.

cnn.com boldly proclaims that Clinton dumps fugitive fundraiser cash today, but yesterday they barely mentioned the announcement her campaign made regarding this clinton I-esque dip into the cesspool of criminal funds in the footnotes of another article, "there is no reason to return any of the money". no one in the news room caught that? they already knew he was a fugitive last week but we see a 24 hour complete 180 on her stand and not a whisper...


what about "save the poor whilst spending $1200+ on my hair cut" edwards? he calls on greedy, enviro-terrorist Americans to sacrifice SUVs but he owns two of the least fuel efficient models available. his response when a non-establishment reporter questioned his blatant do as i say mentality, "i do not regret what i have done with my life". translated for the "serfs", as average dems oft refer to themselves, that means, "just a minute there sparky, fuck you. i made my millions and i'll do whatever i want, i'm not little like you are."

they continue to pound away on the obviously gay republican, rehashing several incidents of his decades of gayness or gay-likeness in great detail, but they omit details of obama's recent claims that he would, in the most imperialistic manor yet openly espoused by the dems, chase terrorists into any country, with or without their consent - guns blazing. world war III, anyone? from their racist/leftist perspective he's a novelty, a semi-BLACK guy who might actually be relevant on the national stage... being a socialist democrat just makes him more appealing than Keyes ever was, nevermind the vast IQ difference (not in obama's favor, btw) and the potent knowledge of subject matter (not held by obama, btw).

they are betting that Americans are too stupid and too lazy to notice what's really going on. the communist borne strategy of slowly rotting an institution from the inside out worked well for them in the recent past; they systematically destroyed the judicial system and sold it out to the trial lawyers for a quick buck... let's just hope they are wrong this time, America deserves truth in the news now more than ever.





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"But even when you cease to be slaves, you are yet far removed from being placed on an equality with the white race."

- Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States of America, Hero to the servants of big government, Racist War Monger

Spin, Spin, Spin. Who is trying to start WWIII? Probably The Bush regime with their Bomb Iran theme. Who has been proven to be the most corrupt and gayest party in history, The repukes. Hey there mr. right is right, take a look at the facts yourself. Why wouldn't the Dems try and hang a repuke for trying to suck dick, they impeached one of the great presidents for GETTING a blow job, Not GIVING one, can you see the irony. This asshole was one of the main forces behind the clinton impeachment, and an anti gay rights advocate. I think it's not only justifiable, but funny as hell, hang the bastard!

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Life is good, the water is sweet. The ground keeps moving beneath my feet.