Saturday, November 8, 2008

NOT NEWS: Election Coverage Biased For Obama

Washington Post Ombudsman: Election Coverage Was Superficial, And Biased For Obama

Nice of them to tell us this after the election.

The Post provided a lot of good campaign coverage, but readers have been consistently critical of the lack of probing issues coverage and what they saw as a tilt toward Democrat Barack Obama. My surveys, which ended on Election Day, show that they are right on both counts.

I don’t know about the rest of you, but this seems like an admission of ageism:

Post reporters, photographers and editors — like most of the national news media — found the candidacy of Obama, the first African American major-party nominee, more newsworthy and historic. Journalists love the new; McCain, 25 years older than Obama, was already well known and had more scars from his longer career in politics.

Obama is young. McCain is old. Thus, Obama gets more coverage. Though that doesn’t exactly explain the paucity of in-depth, positive coverage young and vibrant newcomer Sarah Palin got.

http://sayanythingblog.com/entry/washington_post_ombudsman_election_coverage_was_superficial_and_biased_for_/

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