http://www.boston.com/news/politics/president/kerry/articles/2004/07/12/study_kerry_has_not_capitalized_on_bushs_bad_press/Study: Kerry has not capitalized on Bush's bad press
By Mark Jurkowitz, Globe Staff | July 12, 2004
Media coverage of President Bush has been largely unflattering this campaign season, but there's little indication the bad press has affected the country's view of him, according to a survey being released today.
The findings may be more ominous for the Democratic challenger, John Kerry, who -- at least until last week's selection of John Edwards as his running mate -- was largely missing from national campaign coverage and had left an "indistinct" impression on voters with one notable exception. The study found that the public says he is significantly more likely to "flip-flop" on the issues than Bush.
"Neither of these guys is in control of their message, but it's probably not hurting Bush as much," said Tom Rosenstiel, director of the Project for Excellence in Journalism. "Bush has suffered a huge onslaught of
news coverage, but it's generally not having any impact on people's perceptions. Meanwhile, Kerry has not made much of an impression because he's been absent. . . . The news is probably, on balance, worse for Kerry."<snip>
In explaining why the public seems not to be influenced by the media's portrayal of Bush this time around, Rosenstiel chalked it up to "familiarity. The more people know about someone, the less impact new information has."
For the more unfamiliar candidate, Rosenstiel added, the survey is "not good news." With Kerry generating considerably less media attention than Bush during the first part of the campaign, the study concluded that citizens had an "indistinct" impression of him and that "the only theme that more of the public saw as best describing Kerry rather than Bush was that he was a flip flopper."