http://www.wvwnews.net/story.php?id=5562
By Colleen Raezler
In a just released study, “A Study in Character Assassination: How the TV Networks Have Portrayed Sarah Palin as Dunce or http://www.wvwnews.net/story.php?id=5721 story on Sarah Palin, the Republican vice-presidential candidate.
Is it any wonder that polls revealed a 17 percent increase in Palin’s unfavorability ratings in just one month?
After examining the TV news http://www.wvwnews.net/story.php?id=5676 ran 69 stories about Palin. 2 stories were positive, 37 were negative and 30 were neutral. The 2 positive stories were a two-part interview with Palin’s parents on the CBS Early Show. Not one of the major network evening news programs – ABC’s World News, NBC’s Nightly News, and CBS’s Evening News – ran a single positive story about Palin.ABC was hardest on Palin, as 60 percent of its stories on Palin were negative. NBC came in second, as 54 percent of its stories were negative. CBS also ran 54 percent negative stories, but also ran the only two positive stories (8 percent).
CMI found that the networks promoted three major narratives about Palin:
1. Palin is an unqualified dunce. Networks established this narrative through their decisions to re-air clips of actress http://www.wvwnews.net/story.php?id=5740’s impersonation of Palin and the most embarrassing clips from Palin’s interviews with CBS’ Katie Couric. Overall, 21 network stories attempted to portray Palin as out-of-her-league in her vice-presidential bid. Eleven clips of Fey’s impersonation were replayed over the course of two weeks, and 14 clips of the Couric interviews were re-aired.
2. Conservatives are rejecting Palin. Nine stories emphasized attacks levied at Palin by conservative columnists. However, the networks failed to mention the support Palin has by popular conservative pundits Rush http://www.wvwnews.net/story.php?id=5619 and Mark Levin.
3. Palin is McCain’s attack dog. Fourteen network segments demonized Palin for criticizing Barack Obama. No story analyzed in the study featured parts of her speeches that did not focus on the Obama-Biden campaign.