Can You trust the News Media to Give You the Right Information About the Candidates?

Does the news media have bias?

Who really picks who will be the next president? You? Does the media bombard you information about the candidate “they have chosen”?

The answer may be surprising. And you thought it was your choice.

Fair.org has put together some interesting facts regarding the media coverage from December 26, 2007 through February 5, 2008.

FAIR found the candidates were put into a relatively clear three-tier system by the networks; we’ll call them high-, medium- and low-visibility candidates. Hillary Clinton, John McCain, Barack Obama and Mitt Romney fell in the high-visibility category; John Edwards, Rudy Giuliani, Mike Huckabee and Fred Thompson fell in the medium-visibility category; and Joe Biden, Chris Dodd, Dennis Kucinich, Ron Paul and Bill Richardson fell in the low-visibility category. (Some candidates, including Democrat Mike Gravel and Republican Duncan Hunter, received no coverage at all during the study period.)

Total mentions on Nightly Network News

Number of times each candidate appeared on World News, CBS Evening News and NBC Nightly News (12/26/07–2/5/08). An appearance was tallied each time a candidate was mentioned, had a soundbite or interview, or had a campaign ad included in the newscast.

• Barack Obama: 1,204

• Hillary Clinton: 992

• John McCain: 931

• Mitt Romney: 904

• Mike Huckabee: 503

• John Edwards: 392

• Rudy Giuliani: 238

• Fred Thompson: 62

• Chris Dodd: 22

• Mike Bloomberg: 21

• Bill Richardson: 16

• Joe Biden: 10

• Ron Paul: 10

• Dennis Kucinich: 7