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August 4th 2008     

Media Bias #28

Posted by: Laer at 08:18 pm

A Picture Equals 1,000 Biased Words

The Washington Post’s ombudsman (who is a woman, but WaPo refreshingly avoids using “ombudswoman”) bites the hand that feeds her.  Here’s Deborah Howell fessing up that WaPo’s photo selection is anything but unbiased:

Richard Benedetto, a retired USA Today White House reporter who teaches journalism and political science at American University, studied photos in the A section from June 4, the day after Obama clinched the nomination, to July 14. He shared his research with me, and I expanded it to the whole paper and continued it through Friday [August 1] with the aid of my assistant, Jean Hwang, photo desk assistant David Snyder and The Post’s Merlin photo database.

What we found: 122 photos of Obama have been published in the paper during that time to 78 for McCain, counting tiny to big. Most of those photos ran inside the paper; most on the politics page. The Page 1 photos are closer: Obama had nine to McCain’s seven. Five of Obama’s were above the fold; McCain had four. Obama also got more color photos, 72 to 49, and more large photos — mostly those that spanned three or more columns, 30 to 10.

Says Howell:

It was a bit much.

Media Bias 2008 will cover pro-Obama media bias all the way up to the election. Items are listed from most recent to oldest; the numbering reflects this and is not a ranking. Send Media Bias 2008 examples via “comments”‘ below, or to email2laer [@] yahoo [dot] com.

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« Media Bias #27 | Nov. 4? We Don’t Need No Stinkin’ Nov. 4! »

With Obama winning the presidency by seven percent, we can't blame the media. Their laudatory coverage and refusal to extensively probe into Obama's background and [lack of] experience was at best responsible for five percent of his vote, the pundits tell us. Here is a compilation of over 100 significant instances of pro-Obama/anti-McCain bias during the 2008 campaign.

For all 'Media Bias 2008' – Click Here