McCain vs. Obama

No, this blog is not getting political… I just ran across something on the Reuters blog about media coverage of the rival candidates for the US presidency. The post concentrates on the seeming disparity between the candidates regards their media coverage, specifically their respective US TV coverage and even the number of jokes made about each of them,

Another report this week by the same institution tracked the number of jokes about the candidates told by late night chat show hosts Jay Leno, Conan O’Brien and David Letterman. Obama was the subject of 169 jokes to McCain’s 322.
Obama was the subject of more jokes on Comedy Central, however — 207 to 201 — a trend the report linked to heavy news media coverage, which it said may have spurred greater attention from “fake news” shows on the channel. link

I just wondered how many journalists bother to use online media attention comparison tools like those offered by Silobreaker and Google Trends to support their assertions. The results below give a comparison of global online media attention for Obama and McCain for the past year to date. For a USA only breakdown you’ll need to go to Google Trends,

I know the Reuters post is focussed on TV coverage in the US, but maybe these simple to use tools can help add extra supporting evidence and help steer journalists away from using vague statements such as,

Few would doubt that Barack Obama has attracted more media coverage than his Republican rival John McCain. link