Study: Kerry has not capitalized on Bush's bad pressMedia coverage of President Bush has been largely unflattering this campaign season, but there's little indication the bad press has affected the country's view of him, according to a survey being released today.
The findings may be more ominous for the Democratic challenger, John Kerry, who -- at least until last week's selection of John Edwards as his running mate -- was largely missing from national campaign coverage and had left an "indistinct" impression on voters with one notable exception. The study found that the public says he is significantly more likely to "flip-flop" on the issues than Bush. "Neither of these guys is in control of their message, but it's probably not hurting Bush as much," said Tom Rosenstiel, director of the Project for Excellence in Journalism. "Bush has suffered a huge onslaught of [negative] news coverage, but it's generally not having any impact on people's perceptions. Meanwhile, Kerry has not made much of an impression because he's been absent. . . . The news is probably, on balance, worse for Kerry." The survey, produced by the Project for Excellence in Journalism in conjunction with the University of Missouri School of Journalism and the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press, evaluated how major "character themes" about the candidates were portrayed in the news media as well as in political ads and on late-night comedy shows this year from March to June. The news coverage that was examined included more than 1,500 stories or commentaries that appeared in six major newspapers, on 20 television and radio news and talk programs, and on five Internet blogs. The Pew Research Center measured public attitudes about the major campaign themes. One crucial finding is that election-year coverage has largely been driven by external events -- such as the violence in Iraq and the Sept. 11 commission -- rather than the campaigns themselves. That may explain why the president, who is at the center of these major events, has dominated the headlines -- albeit in a negative way -- and relegated Kerry to secondary status. The study found that 72 percent of the themes that dealt with the candidates' character concerned Bush, while only 28 percent were about his Democratic rival. And though the president has received the bulk of the bad press, neither man has been portrayed in a good light. The dominant media themes about Bush were that he is arrogant and lacks credibility, while Kerry was most frequently portrayed as indecisive and very liberal. Despite months of tough coverage, the Pew poll found that "the strongest associations people have with President Bush are positive." The Bush characteristics most frequently cited by the public are that he is tough and won't back down (53 percent) and that he is strong and decisive (48 percent), although 44 percent did describe him as stubborn. Conversely, only 18 percent selected Kerry as the candidate who most epitomizes strength and decisiveness, and only 15 percent saw him as the one who is tougher and more tenacious. Thus far in 2004, coverage of Bush has been less friendly than it was four years ago, when a similar study found him treated more favorably than his opponent, Al Gore, with journalists trumpeting the idea of him as a "compassionate conservative." In explaining why the public seems not to be influenced by the media's portrayal of Bush this time around, Rosenstiel chalked it up to "familiarity. The more people know about someone, the less impact new information has." For the more unfamiliar candidate, Rosenstiel added, the survey is "not good news." With Kerry generating considerably less media attention than Bush during the first part of the campaign, the study concluded that citizens had an "indistinct" impression of him and that "the only theme that more of the public saw as best describing Kerry rather than Bush was that he was a flip flopper."
Mark Jurkowitz can be reached at jurkowitz@globe.com. © Copyright 2004 Globe Newspaper Company.
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