The Project for Excellence in Journalism has an insightful breakdown of the media's coverage of the Democratic and Republican primary races, focusing on the candidacies of Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton and John McCain.
The report puts to bed the notion that Obama received more favorable coverage in the press than Clinton. However, it also points out the unfortunate preference by journalists for "horse race" analysis:
Looking beyond the master narratives about the candidates personally, coverage overall in 2008 has so far focused largely on the horse race. Fully 78% of the stories studied between January 1 and the first week of May have focused on political matters, such as who won the latest primary. By contrast, policy stories made up 7% of the stories, personal matters 7%, and the candidates’ public record, 2%. And few major storylines stand out.
This article appears in Jun 11-17, 2008.