President George W. Bush's decision to go before Tim Russert on Meet the Press may have been inspired by a tectonic shift in the media landscape -- a shift that has resulted in news stories that increasingly portray the president in less favorable light.

NEW YORK, February 10, 2004 -- Battered by criticism for allegedly handling the Bush administration with kid gloves, mainstream media appear to be turning against their former favorite. Analysis released today shows that recent network coverage has made a notable shift against George W. Bush, while tending to favor his odds-on opponent for November, Senator John Kerry.

According an official in the administration's press office, the mainstream media's turn contributed to the president's decision to state his defense in front of the cameras on NBC's Sunday news program Meet the Press.

MediaChannel/Media Tenor analysis in 2004 shows more than 31 percent of news coverage by the big three networks casts President Bush in a negative light. This is a shift away from coverage in 2003, which tended to fall in line behind the president's policies, and to under-report dissenting views, according to international media monitoring agency Media Tenor.

The data are based on Media Tenor analysis of all statements made about the president during the half-hour nightly news broadcasts on CBS, NBC and ABC. In the period from January 1 through February 5, the networks made a total of 1,403 statements about Bush. Media Tenor analysts recorded 440 or 31.4 percent of statements as negative. The international media monitor found only 169, or 12.1 percent, of statements about President Bush were positive.

In the final week of analysis, ending February 6, Bush received a highest 38 percent negative rating, according to Media Tenor President Roland Schatz. "Negative media pressure on President Bush trended upwards at the beginning of February," Schatz said. He pointed to negative news reports on the president's handling of the economy, his apparent capitulation on evidence of Iraqi WMD, as well as a surge of criticism regarding his military service during the Vietnam War as the "news drivers" resulting in Bush's negative numbers.

Senator Kerry received a 37.2 percent positive rating in the same period, while Media Tenor counted only 10.2 percent of the networks' coverage of the Senator as negative. Prior to Kerry's January 19 victory in Iowa, the networks devoted less than 7 percent of their election coverage to the Senator. And the bulk of this coverage, according to Media Tenor analysis, had no positive or negative slant.

CBS Assumes Lead in Anti-Bush Coverage

In the final week of analysis, CBS Evening News broadcast overwhelmingly negative coverage of President Bush. More than 45 percent of all CBS news on the president was negative, while positive statements amounted to only 1.4 percent of the network's reporting.

This revelation contradicts recent criticism of the network for an alleged right-wing bias in its programming. In December CBS fell under attack after it canceled "The Reagans" in response to right-wing outrage over what was seen as cruel treatment of the ailing former president.

In January, CBS rejected a request from grassroots activist group MoveOn to air a 30-second Super Bowl ad that criticized the Bush administration's run-up of the federal deficit. While cutting MoveOn from the program, CBS chose to broadcast a Super Bowl ad by the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy. This decision inspired more than 340,000 Americans to write CBS President Leslie Moonves claiming network favoritism towards the White House and against the progressive politics of MoveOn.

CBS Evening News' anti-Bush cast is offset by ABC World News Tonight, which featured negative coverage of Bush in only 27.8 percent of its reporting, while providing positive Bush coverage 14.8 percent of the time. Media Tenor monitors classified the remainder of ABC's Bush coverage as neutral.

The Media Tide and the Iraqi War

Recent negative coverage of the president stands in contrast to the decidedly more favorable airtime Bush received in early 2003. In the aftermath of Bush's 2003 State of the Union address -- and before the official March 20 launch of the war -- broadcast media reports fell into line in support of the Bush administration's case for a pre-emptive strike against Iraq.

According to a recent New York Review of Books report by Michael Massing, "In the period before the war, US journalists were far too reliant on sources sympathetic to the administration. Those with dissenting views -- and there were more than a few -- were shut out. Reflecting this, the coverage was highly deferential to the White House."

The administration further facilitated journalists by "embedding" them with troops, in situations where they were always under a watchful eye of a government authority.

According to Massing, most of the news organizations' investigative energy was directed at stories that supported, rather than challenged, the administration's case for war. While the right media establishment "all stood ready to pounce on journalists who strayed, branding them liberals or traitors -- labels that could permanently damage a career. Gradually, journalists began to muzzle themselves."

But MediaChannel/Media Tenor analysis indicates that this media climate is changing.

-- Timothy Karr is executive director of MediaChannel.org, which last week launched Media For Democracy 2004 (www.mediafordemocracy.us), a citizens-powered initiative to hold mainstream media to a higher standard of election coverage.

© MediaChannel.org, 2004 All rights reserved.

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