MRC STUDY: RISE AND SHINE, DEMOCRATS

Alexandria, VA All three broadcast network morning shows are dramatically tilting their presidential campaign coverage in favor of the Democrats, a new study from the Media Research Center has documented. MRCs analysts found the morning shows are offering nearly twice as much coverage of the Democrats, are three times more likely to have a Democratic candidate appear as an on-air guest, and are confronting both parties with an overwhelmingly liberal agenda.

The MRC report, Rise and Shine on Democrats [2], reviewed all 517 campaign segments on ABCs Good Morning America, CBSs The Early Show and NBCs Today from January 1 through July 31. Full results appear on the MRCs Web site, www.MRC.org [3]. Key findings:

• Twice the Exposure The network morning shows offered nearly twice as much coverage to the Democrats (55% of all campaign segments) compared to the Republicans (29%).
  

• Free Airtime for Democrats In on-air interviews, ABC, CBS and NBC doled out nearly three times as much airtime to the Democrats (4 hours, 35 minutes) as to the Republicans (1 hour, 44 minutes).
  

• Liberal Agenda Of the interview questions that could be categorized as having a political agenda, more than two-thirds (69%) of the questions posed to Democrats reflected a liberal premise, and more than four-fifths (82%) of the questions to Republicans came from the same perspective.
  

• President-in-Waiting? Hillary Clinton has received more coverage (61 segments) - far more than her Democratic rivals John Edwards (44 stories) and Barack Obama (41 stories) and nearly double the coverage of the most visible GOP candidate John McCain (31 stories).
  

• Going for Gore Undeclared liberal candidate Al Gore was the subject of more campaign coverage (29 stories) than declared Republican candidates Rudy Giuliani (26 stories) and Mitt Romney (19).
  

• Favoring the Democrats Top Democratic candidates received much more favorable coverage than their GOP counterparts, with Senator Clinton cast as "unbeatable" and Illinois Senator Barack Obama tagged as a "rock star." The most prominent Republican, Arizona Senator John McCain, was portrayed as a loser because of his support for staying the course in Iraq.

Our results show pure partisanship on the part of ABC, CBS and NBC, declared MRC President L. Brent Bozell III. Not only are the network morning shows overwhelmingly focused on Democrats, they are actively promoting the Democrats liberal agenda.

Read the Full Report [4] | Read the Executive Summary [2]|