Pew Research Center's Project for Excellence in Journalism released a study on Monday on the treatment of presidential contenders, including Barack Obama, for 2012 in the media and blogs.
The findings are indicative of a President that has generally lost the support of the mainstream media with only one Republican candidate, Newt Gingrich, receiving more negative coverage (35%) than Barack Obama (34%).
More concerning for the Obama administration is that in the last five months, Obama's positive coverage from the media is the lowest of all the presidential contenders are 9 percent. That is nearly four-to-one stories that are more negative for Obama than positive.
Read the full report here.
Compare this to the Pew Research study in April 2009 of Obama's media coverage which found positive stories about Obama have outweighed negative by two-to-one (42% vs. 20%) while 38% of stories have been neutral or mixed.
With an actual record now for the public to judge Obama on, unemployment still above 9 percent, the economy stalling now that the $787 billion stimulus from 2009 is no longer giving the illusion of things getting better and the Fast and Furious and Solyndra scandals finally being reported on, there hasn't been a lot of positives happening for Obama, which explains the lack of positive coverage in the last five months.
What a difference two-and-a-half years make huh?
This negative coverage for Obama may change once a Republican candidate is nominated to run against Obama in 2012 and the media once again decides to take sides and attempt to influence the public but polling from a variety of organizations show that majority of the American public disapproves of the job Obama is doing. Not one poll shows Obama below 50 percent disapproval.
(Note- Those numbers reflect polling done as of today 10/20/11 and change as new polling information is added)
Disapproval of Obama’s agenda has begun to harden among voters according to the Allstate/National Journal Heartland Monitor survey and CNN finds two-thirds of all registered Republicans say they are extremely or very enthusiastic about voting next year, compared to less than half of all Democrats. Furthermore, 50 percent of Americans believe Obama should not be reelected for a second term.
The media, especially the liberal portion of the media, may not be able to spin Obama out of this by election time in 2012.
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