Looking at the transcripts of CNN, FNC, and MSNBC during the two "primetime" hours of the day John McCain and Barack Obama announced their running mates, a trend becomes quite clear: The media were much more likely to report negative information about the Alaskan Palin than the Delawarean Biden.
MSNBC was the most unfair of the cable news channels. After Democrats learned Biden would be their vice presidential nominee August 23rd, MSNBC aired 47 positive statements about Obama's running mate. The network aired just 4 about Sara Palin when she was announced August 29th, making it 12 times more likely to praise Biden than Palin.
Compared to CNN and MSNBC, Fox News was the fairest network. Biden was the recipient of more positive statements than Palin (25 versus 15) but he was also the recipient of more negative statements (31 versus 10).
As for CNN, while the first cable news channel was not as effusive in its praise of Biden as MSNBC (the network aired 29 positive statements about the Democrat versus 15 about Palin), it actually outstripped MSNBC in attacking Sarah Palin.
Palin News 7:00 PM to 9:00 PM 8/29/08
CNN Fox MSNBC
Positive 15 15 4
Negative 27 10 20
Neutral 26 37 13
Total 68 62 37
BIDEN News 7:00pm to 9:00pm 8/23/08
CNN Fox MSNBC
Positive 29 25 47
Negative 14 31 14
Neutral 65 51 61
Total 108 107 122
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