John McCain’s presidential campaign has been flying under the news media’s radar since he sewed up the GOP nomination in early March, receiving consistently less news than either Barack Obama or Hillary Clinton; still, by a margin of 36%-11%, far more Americans say the news they have been hearing about McCain has been mostly positive rather than mostly negative than say the same about coverage of Obama or Clinton (44% say the news about the Arizona senator has been mixed). Perceptions of Clinton’s press coverage are strikingly different. Fully 36% say the news they have been hearing about the former first lady has been mostly negative, while just 13% say it has been mostly positive. A 47% plurality says there has been a mix of positive and negative news. Views of Obama’s coverage are evenly divided between those who see it as mostly positive (21%) and mostly negative with a narrow majority (53%) saying it has been a mixture of both. Read More

Russell Heimlich  is a former web developer at Pew Research Center.