Study Examines Midwest Election Coverage

[cal04]

An average of 36 seconds per broadcast is all that election coverage has warranted on local evening news in nine top Midwestern markets since Labor Day, a study released Thursday found.

The five-state analysis by the University of Wisconsin-Madison's NewsLab looked at 30-minute evening news broadcasts on 36 stations in nine top Midwestern television markets.

Television journalists dismissed the study as unfair because it was limited to only part of the day and omitted public affairs programming and the airing of debates.

"To ignore a two-hour news block in the morning would be like doing a newspaper analysis and looking at only every other day's edition," said Tom Lindner, news director of the Minneapolis NBC affiliate KARE, which was one of the stations studied.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20061012/ap_en_tv/election_coverage_4

[katinmn]

1. This is why our democracy is dying!! Right there.

Why should corporations just simply give away airtime to issues when candidates will spend billions on negative ads this month?

Thank the Repukes for turning the airwaves over to the money grubbers.