NEW YORK — Coverage of Republican candidate John McCain has been overwhelmingly negative since the conventions ended, a study released Wednesday found.
The Project for Excellence in Journalism’s report illustrates how the media echo chamber can send things spiraling out of control for a candidate. It’s likely to give ammunition to people who say the media have been biased against McCain, but the organization said its findings on this were inconclusive.
“It’s quite possible for there to be elements of enthusiasm for one candidate or another,” said director Tom Rosenstiel. “That’s a failure of professionalism if it’s there. But this report can’t suss it out.”
McCain and Barack Obama have received an equal amount of media attention since the conventions. The project judged 57 percent of the stories about McCain as negative, with 14 percent positive. The rest were neutral.
Obama’s coverage was mixed: 36 percent positive, 29 percent negative, 35 percent neutral.
“I guess it’s inevitable, but it does reflect the relentless degree to which winning begets winning,” Rosenstiel said.
