< CMPA ElectionWatch Archive - Campaign '96
During the 1996 presidential campaign, Election Watch analyzed a wide variety of news coverage -- including national and local newspaper coverage, broadcast TV and cable TV news -- and compared the results with the content of the candidates' own speeches, advertising and broadcast interviews. Major support for Election Watch in the 1996 campaign came from the John and Mary Markle Foundation.

Results of CMPA research from 1988 - 1996 are available in the revised second edition of Good Intentions Make Bad News: Why Americans Hate Campaign Journalism (Rowman and Littlefield, 1996).
Full text versions of ElectionWatch results from the 1996 Presidential campaign are available by clicking the links below.

Election Watch Special reports

Election Watch: The Preseason

Election Watch: The Second Report

Election Watch: The Third Report

Election Watch: The Fourth Report

Election Watch: The March/April Report

Election Watch: The Markle Report

Election Watch: The April Release

Media Monitors

The Bad News Campaign
TV News Coverage of the GOP Primaries (March/April 1996)

Whose Campaign Did You See?
Primary Perspectives from the Press, the Polls and TV's Pranksters (May/June 1996)

Dole's Summer Doldrums
TV News Coverage of 1996 Presidential Election (July/August 1996)

Take This Campaign -- Please
TV News Coverage of the 1996 Presidential Election (September/October 1996)

Campaign '96 Final
How TV News Covered the General Election (November/December 1996)