Today the WashPost investigates a common Democratic beef: President Bush allegedly receives three times as much live cable news coverage as John Kerry. Democratic strategists have been complaining about this almost from the beginning of the Dubya presidency, even though the cable-news emphasis on the White House helped Clinton in 1996 and throughout the scandalous second term.
But here’s where the Democratic beef crumbles into hash:
1. The study period. The Post’s time period — from Kerry’s victory on March 3 through April 16 — is a finicky time period to choose, when Kerry took eight days of vacation and the media took a rest from Democrat coverage once the primary race seemed to be over. If the Post had included the time from the Iowa caucuses in late January to March 3, the ratio of coverage would look more balanced. Kerry and the other candidates got hours and hours of cable news time in debates and election-night speeches, and each and every Democratic candidate attacked Bush.
2. The scrutiny imbalance. In the Post’s study period, the Bush campaign has been pounded by all the media campaigning on Kerry’s behalf. In early March, the TV news elite created a critical frenzy about Bush’s supposedly wildly controversial campaign ads which used 9-11 footage for a second or two. In late March, the new book by Richard Clarke injected partisan energy into the 9-11 Commission, and April is now being underlined repeatedly as a bad month for the Iraq reconstruction effort. Bush has been relentlessly scrutinized, as reporters demanded last week in the East Room that he take responsibility for September 11 and admit his incompetence.
In the meantime, what scrutiny has John Kerry received? Lots of demands he take dreamy John McCain as his running mate. Lots of free passes for his gaffes, from the one about how he voted for the Iraq reconstruction bill before he voted against it, to the muttering to unionists about how Republicans are a bunch of crooked liars. And the very same WashPost was running goofy stories by Dan Balz about how Kerry is really a “centrist.” Bush can only dream about the kind of media coverage Kerry’s receiving.
3. What reporters say. So Bush has received three times as much cable coverage. Even if so, hasn’t he also received about ten times as much criticism and negativity? Don’t just count minutes of live speeches. What do reporters and anchors say, not to mention the parade of guests and experts? You would find that Kerry’s getting a fantastic ratio of positive to negative press, a ratio Bush could only dream about.