A respected group of media researchers has found that Sen. Barack Obama gets a lot more coverage than Sen. John McCain. I didn't need a think tank to tell me that. After all, Madonna gets more coverage than Mr. McCain does, too, even when she doesn't want it - although it is hard to imagine when she wouldn't.
Mr. Obama gets more media attention than Mr. McCain because, as we have heard over and over again, he is the rock star of today's political scene. Mr. McCain, by contrast, is an attractive candidate and war hero who is less intriguing precisely because, in a political world where fresh and new have become the highest virtue, we know him so well.
Even liberals who disagree with him politically have a lot of affection for the Arizona senator as a man and a maverick, even when he's been talking a lot less maverick lately. But, running against Mr. Obama, he often brings to mind grumpy ol' Mr. Wilson chasing Dennis the Menace off his lawn.
The public tells us media workers this with their viewing and reading habits. A Time magazine cover with Mr. Obama in 2006 was the second best-selling of the year, and a Men's Vogue cover outsold every issue but the debut, according to The Washington Post. Newsweek has done six covers with Mr. Obama over the past year, two with Mr. McCain. Rolling Stone has given him at least two covers. If they don't know rock stars, who does?
Sure, the coverage helps Mr. Obama, but it also confirms the biggest bias in the media: our hunger for a big story - and the big audience that comes with it.
Mr. McCain, for example, has taken three foreign trips in the past four months. Not one was accompanied by a network anchor. All three network anchors rolled out to cover Mr. Obama's visits to Europe and the Middle East.
That's a continuation of a trend, according to the Project for Excellence in Journalism. Since June 9, when Mr. Obama clinched enough votes for the nomination, the project took a weekly look at 300 political stories in newspapers, magazines and television. In one week, for example, Mr. Obama played an important role in 77 percent of the stories. Only 51 percent featured Mr. McCain.
That troubles Tom Rosenstiel, the project's director. "No matter how understandable it is, given the newness of the candidate and the historical nature of Obama's candidacy," he told the Associated Press, "in the end it's probably not fair to McCain."
