Democrats are finding out that being in the news isn’t necessarily good news. A week after Barack Obama was besieged by the Rev. Wright furor, Hillary Clinton’s memory and veracity came under fire. Does all this make John McCain the big winner?
Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton generated a huge portion of the headlines last week as Pennsylvanians finally went to the polls. The issue of race re-emerged to play a substantial role in the media’s Democratic campaign narrative. And Republican John McCain struggled to be heard through the din.
John McCain and Hillary Clinton were reduced to relative obscurity last week. The media’s presidential campaign narrative instead focused on one overarching issue: could Barack Obama handle the controversy over his pastor’s racially inflammatory remarks?
In a week in which the campaign overwhelmingly dominated the talk airwaves, the hottest issue was Obama’s speech aimed at dampening the Rev. Jeremiah Wright controversy. In the talk show universe, the response was impassioned, but the verdict was far from unanimous.
When it came to coverage, John McCain was a forgotten man compared with Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama. But perhaps no news was good news for the GOP in a week during which the press highlighted some of the uglier divisions among Democrats.
Negative Views of the US More Common Than Negative Views of China
The Project for Excellence in Journalism did not issue a News Index report this week, but the data is available.
Summary of Findings Public views of the U.S. economy, already quite negative, have plummeted since January. Just 17% currently rate the nation’s economy as excellent or good, down from 26% last month. The percentage of Americans rating the economy as “poor” has increased even more dramatically, from 28% to 45% in one month. Moreover, there […]