Here is a non-scientific mini-study regarding last night's primary:
I spent just a few minutes this morning looking at the front page of three major news sources: CNN, MSNBC and Foxnews.
Of the three, MSNBC makes the least about the Democratic Florida Primary (which was stripped of any delegates and therefore should not factor very much). I did a word search on Clinton and Obama and it doesn't even exist on the front page!
CNN was also pretty neutral although mentions Clinton's "win." Obama was also mentioned on the front page, but less often than Hillary. The front page consisted of the following headlines/links with my opinion in parenthesis:
Ticker: I didn't snub Clinton, says Obama - (Negative for Obama)
Clinton trumpets win with no delegates at stake - (Neutral for Clinton)
Cafferty: Top Dems turn backs on Clinton? - (Negative for Clinton)
I think FoxNews has the most telling front page. They have a graph at the top showing the percentages of both Florida contests which shows Clinton as the clear winner. They also have the following headlines/links:
CLINTON WINS FLORIDA 'BEAUTY CONTEST' (I guess this is neutral. Tough call)
Picture of Hillary with link to a video entitled 'Great Victory'. This link appears twice with a subtitle referring to the Obama snub. (Clearly a positive for Clinton, and mentioned twice).
Sharpton scolds Bill Clinton - (Neutral for Clinton - considering the source of the scolding)
Father Jonathan: Barack Obama vs. Jesse Jackson (First glance says negative, and the reading confirms it)
Dick Morris, Eileen McGann: Bill's Temper Tantrums (Negative on Clinton)
What does all of this mean? Well goodness, I don't know, but if I want to throw my opinion around, (and a blog is a good place to do that), this is what I think:
MSNBC seems to stay relatively neutral, or perhaps because they didn't mention Clinton's win, they are Anti-Clinton. Either way they get points in my book.
CNN, which has been known to be called the Clinton News Network, is surprisingly neutral. I was impressed. I turned them off last night because they were bringing Clinton on Anderson Cooper. I couldn't handle watching that so I turned on NPR.
FoxNews pretty much reinforced my opinion that they border on tabloid and biased news than real news. It used to be the only thing I'd watch, but it just got to be too much. I also believe they reflect many in the conservative base that really want Clinton to get the nomination because that's the only way conservatives stand a chance of winning. By having so many Clinton headlines I think it helps to invoke both fear in conservatives of a Clinton presidency and therefore arouse a voter base. (Perhaps I'm just a conspiracy theorist).
Overall I'm pretty impressed with CNN and MSNBC. That being said though, if I want anything close to unbiased I still turn to BBC or NPR.
That's funny. I guess this could be sliced and diced in many ways. I guess my "typical male" take was that it was discounting the primary by calling it a Beauty Contest. By saying Clinton wins (positive) and Beauty contest (not a REAL primary and therefore negative) I was determining it as a generally neutral statement. But to your point, it is also a bit of a chauvinistic slam. What can you expect from tabloid media?
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