Obama getting three times the coverage of McCain

By Robert Kittle
WBTW Columbia Bureau Chief
Published: July 19, 2008

A new report on the major networks’ coverage of the presidential campaign is raising questions about fairness. The Tyndall Report is a news monitoring service that includes ABC’s, CBS’s and NBC’s nightly newscasts. The report found that the networks spent 114 minutes covering Barack Obama and 48 minutes covering John McCain since June.

Dr. Bob Oldendick, director of the Survey Research Lab at the University of South Carolina, says, “The fact that there’s such an imbalance at this point in time between the two campaigns, I think, is a legitimate concern as to, is this fair? Is it balanced?”

And it’s likely to get even more imbalanced. All three networks are sending their main anchors--Charlie Gibson, Katie Couric and Brian Williams--along with Obama next week on his trip to the Middle East. McCain also visited the Middle East recently and, while the networks did cover his trip, none of the anchors went.

Network news executives have said that they’re covering Obama more because he’s making history as the first African-American nominee from a major party. They also say that McCain is well known because he’s been around so long and ran for president in 2000, while much less is known about Obama.

Sid Bedingfield, a visiting professor at USC’s College of Journalism and Mass Communications, used to be in charge of CNN’s political coverage. He says, “Obama is the new kid on the block so there’s a huge demand from the public to know who he is. Even among those who don’t support him, there’s high interest in what he has to say. So some extended coverage is justified because he’s a new face. But at some point, you have to be very, very careful not to go too far, and I think the networks are sort of on the verge of that.”

Oldendick says it’s an important issue to watch. “Certainly, the amount of coverage and how the candidates are portrayed can have an impact on voters, ultimately,” he says.