[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 155 (2009), Part 8]
[House]
[Page 11056]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                STUDY FINDS MEDIA ACT AS SHILL FOR OBAMA

  (Mr. SMITH of Texas asked and was given permission to address the 
House for 1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. SMITH of Texas. Madam Speaker, network news programs gave 
President Obama over three times more coverage than President Bush at 
the same time in their presidencies, according to a new study by George 
Mason and Chapman Universities. During President Obama's first 50 days 
in office, the three network evening news programs devoted over 1,000 
stories lasting almost 28 hours to President Obama--about half of their 
entire newscasts. By contrast, President Bush received less than 8 
hours of network news coverage at the same point in his Presidency, 
less than one-third as much. There is no reason to think the first 100 
days are any different.
  Furthermore, 58 percent of all network news evaluations of President 
Obama and his policies were favorable while only 33 percent of 
evaluations of President Bush were favorable. These numbers aren't even 
close.
  Americans need the media to report the news objectively; not act as a 
shill for a Democratic President.

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