The Project for Excellence in Journalism, a non-partisan journalists' organization based in Washington, D.C., conducted a study of 817 news stories on the presidential campaign in the first two weeks of October. No surprise: The study found that the stories were disproportionately negative toward President Bush.
"In the closing weeks of the 2004 presidential race, the period dominated by the debates, President George W. Bush suffered strikingly more negative press coverage than challenger John Kerry," the study concluded. "More than half of all Bush stories were decidedly negative in tone. By contrast, only a quarter of all Kerry stories were clearly negative."
