Not all news is good news

Once again counting on Americans' inability to read between the lines, the Mainstream Corporate Media (MCM) is trotting out a new study that shows that Barack Obama has received more media coverage than has Huggy Bear.

From June 9 to July 20, Obama was a significant presence in 78 percent of campaign stories by mainstream-media outlets, while McCain was a significant presence in 52 percent of the stories during that period.

Tom Rosenstiel, director of the [Pew Research Center's Project for Excellence in Journalism], said Obama consistently received more media coverage than the other candidates in the Democratic primary, but many people suspected that the coverage would level out in the general election. But since June 9, the difference between the coverage of Obama and McCain has in fact widened, from 22 percent to 31 percent.

Okay, folks, think critically here: what critical factor is missing from that survey, as reported here? Think about it ... I'll even give you a hint: "quantity vs. quality" ...

Okay, I'll tell you: The study makes no distinction between the amount of coverage and the tenor of that coverage. In other words, whether the coverage was positive or negative makes no difference: an article critical of Obama and one fawning over Huggy receive the same weight. For example, look at the chart of top stories for last week:

Huggy Bear's coverage includes his speech to the NAACP and his outreach to Hispanic voters, as does that of Obama. But other big stories were Jesse Jackson's remarks ("cut off his nuts") and the easily-misunderstood New Yorker cover -- both of which reflect negatively on the candidate. Even with Obama's European trip, you can't tell from this chart nor from the accompanying narrative whether or not the coverage was positive, negative, or neutral.

So we can expect the MCM to continue to slam Obama and prop up Huggy Bear (soon, literally, I'll bet), just as they have been all along. And as long as the slamming happens more than the propping, you'll continue to hear the whining from the Right that their guy's not getting enough coverage.

When you do, just remember: more doesn't always mean better.