Including late-breaking data from the Iraq occupation and the disastrous CBS News reports on Bush's Vietnam-era National Guard Service, acclaimed media scholars Stephen J. Farnsworth and S. Robert Lichter examine news coverage of military policy, economic policy, and scandals from the last four U.S. presidencies, including the current controversial administration. Using a quarter-century of content analysis data, the authors demonstrate how the White House dominates Capitol Hill on every dimension of news coverage, undermining Congress's attempt to compete as a co-equal branch before the public. At the same time, they show how the networks are steadily losing ground to new media outlets and suggest future paths our media mania may take.

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The Nightly News Nightmare: Television's Coverage of U.S. Presidential Elections, 1988-2004 (Second Edition)
by Stephen J. Farnsworth, S. Robert Lichter

Acclaimed media scholars Farnsworth and Lichter draw on the lessons of the last five presidential elections to show how network news coverage of what is arguably the nation's most important political event has declined. Through extensive analysis of news content, the authors compare what the candidates said with what the networks say they said and judge the disparity a nightmare. What may make it even harder to sleep at night is that the authors go on to suggest that perhaps the candidates themselves do a better job of portraying the campaigns than those who used to be the trusted network guardians of the news.

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