Have you been getting the feeling that, as the Iowa caucuses bear down upon us, the campaign press has been harder on Howard Dean than anyone else? So have we.
It’s not entirely surprising; it’s human nature to take a harder look at someone who bursts onto the scene out of nowhere than at a gaggle of old familiars like Gephardt, Kerry and Edwards. But this is getting out of hand. We already told you about how the The New York Times and The Washington Post have been parroting his opponents’ Dean-in-trouble spin, and about how ABC News ran a shameful anti-Dean smear piece with no news value whatsoever. Now comes more evidence that the media have been ganging up on the Governor: A study by the Center for Media and Public Affairs released yesterday finds that Dean received much more critical coverage on network newscasts than his rivals. You read it here first.
–Z.R.
Zachary Roth is a contributing editor to The Washington Monthly. He also has written for The Los Angeles Times, The New Republic, Slate, Salon, The Daily Beast, and Talking Points Memo, among other outlets.