Gee, ya think?

In a study of media coverage of the elections, the Center for Media and Public Affairs, which describes itself as "a nonpartisan research and educational organization which conducts scientific studies of the news and entertainment media" found that the media was signficantly biased toward Kerry. The study, which covers the time frame of June 1 - September 2 is available in pdf form on the Center's home page.

The results, while interesting, shouldn't surprise any impartial observer of the media. Here's some highlights:

Percent of Positive Evaluations
• TV Overall - Kerry - 62% Bush - 41%
• News Magazines Overall - Kerry - 67% Bush - 38%
• Most Biased toward Kerry - Newsweek Magazine
• Second Most Biased - NBC
• Least Biased Toward Kerry - ABC

One statistic is fascinating.

Bias by Source Type (Positive Evaluations)
• Partisan - Kerry - 53% Bush 50%
• Non-Partisan - Kerry - 71% Bush - 31%

So much for being "non-partisan", huh?

Here's the executive summary:

• Evaluations of John Kerry were positive by a two-to-one margin, while evaluations of George W. Bush were over 60 percent negative.
• Among non-partisan sources, Kerry's evaluations were almost three-to-one positive; Bush's were over two-to-one negative.
• Among the networks, the gap between the candidates was largest on NBC; the coverage was most balanced on ABC.
• Kerry's proportion of good press declined in August, as his but he still fared far better than Bush until the GOP convention.
• Bush got better press than Kerry only during the GOP convention, which was the only time he received a majority of positive evaluations.
• Based on our previous studies of primary and general election coverage, Kerry has gotten the best press on network news of any presidential nominee since we began tracking election news in 1988.
• The coverage has focused more on the candidates' policies and personal characteristics than on the campaign horse race.

The Fox News Channel Difference
• Fox News Channel was about as negative towards Bush as the broadcast networks, but Kerry's evaluations were negative by a five-to-one margin.
• There was little difference in the evaluations of party- and campaign-based partisan sources; but Bush fared over four times as well as Kerry among non-partisan sources.

Liberals' complaints about the bias of Fox News are obviously justified. Will they admit that conservatives' complaints about the bias of the rest of the media are also justified?

Somehow I doubt it.