Most Media Observers Side With Hillary Campaign Claim That Press Has Been Harder On Her
March 4, 2008 -- 12:15 PM EST // //
Because so many press observers have now weighed in on the Hillary camp's accusation that the press has been much tougher on her than on Obama, I thought it would be useful to tally up who stands where on the question.
It turns out that opinion is running heavily in favor of Hillary on this. Without further ado:
In the press-has-been-unfair-to-Hillary camp...
Howard KurtzIn the press-isn't unfair-and-the-Hillary-camp-are-a-bunch-of-whiners camp:The Center for Media and Public Affairs
Mark Halperin (via Nexis)
Walter Shorenstein (though in fairness he's a Hillary supporter)
Maureen DowdNote to readers: This is a partial list, a work in progress. If I missed a name, please don't take it as proof of a grand conspiracy to advance a position you disagree with. I'll update this list as more names come in.
Just a couple quick notes on this. As I noted here yesterday, in many ways the question of whether the press is "tougher" on one candidate or the other is beside the point. Rather, the question we should be asking is whether the press is fair to both candidates -- indeed, to all of them. But the Hillary campaign framed the question this way for its own obvious reasons (they want the press to start bashing Obama). So this is how the debate has unfolded.
What's more, in the above tally, some people obviously have more nuanced positions than either "agree with Hillary" or "disagree with Hillary." But for the purpose of getting a sense of which way opinion is breaking on this question, I took the liberty of slotting people into either category as best I could.
Finally, as the above shows, it's worth noting that whichever side you take here, the Clinton camp's repeated accusations have had the salutary effect of generating a pretty vigorous debate on the question, flawed as it is. It remains to be seen, of course, whether the debate will anything more than get media figures to start "getting tough" on Obama in a manner that's as trivial and inane as much of the media bashing of Hillary has been.
At any rate, it's pretty clear that opinion is breaking heavily in the direction of the Hillary campaign on this.
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