The Pew Research Center’s Project for Excellence in Journalism studied cable news coverage from August 27 through October 21. They announced 71 percent of MSNBC's coverage of Mitt Romney this year was negative, far outperforming Fox News's negative coverage of President Barack Obama, which came in at 46 percent. The negative-to-positive ratio on MSNBC was roughly 23-to-1; the negative-to-positive ratio on Fox News was 8-to-1.
We're not believers in Pew's methodology, which allows computer monitors to do the studying instead of humans. But in response to the survey on his radio show on Friday, Ed Schultz could have been coining a new MSNBC slogan. He said being anti-Romney can be defined as “playing fair with the facts.”
SCHULTZ : There's a study out by the Pew Research Center saying that President Obama has benefited from the media. Really? Well, it's not exactly what it says. It says that, uh, most of MSNBC's coverage, 71 percent, has been negative on Mitt Romney. Ya think?!
What the hell are we supposed to do?! Play nice?! Well we are playing nice. We're playing fair. We're playing fair with the facts.
