Who’s watching news scorecards on Obama?

NEW YORK — As President Barack Obama passed his 100th day in office last week, two studies judged that the news media has given him more coverage, and more positive coverage, than his two predecessors at the same point in their terms.

What is that information really worth?

“It’s always good to know what you’re doing,” said Bob Lichter, director of the Center for Media and Public Affairs at George Mason University. “Journalists get critiques from all sides at all times. Instead of throwing up your hands and ignoring critiques of your work, you can focus on reliable critiques.”

Lichter’s group did one of the studies, looking at evening news coverage and stories in The New York Times over 50 days. It found the ABC, CBS and NBC evening newscasts devoted nearly 28 hours to the new Obama administration, more than they did during the same stretch in the Bush and Clinton presidencies combined.

The tone of comments by reporters and sources on the three networks reflected positively on Obama in roughly the same proportions, 57 percent on ABC, 58 percent on CBS and 61 percent on NBC. Bush faced a two-thirds negative reaction, and Clinton 44 percent in the same period.

Obama’s policies have come in for more criticism than the president himself, the center said.

Another independent think tank, the Pew Research Center’s Project for Excellence in Journalism, did a more extensive look at media outlets and judged 42 percent of news stories, editorials and columns were pro-Obama. Clinton was 27 percent positive and Bush 22 percent positive in a similar evaluation.

News organizations are focusing more on Obama’s leadership style and personal qualities than they did for his immediate predecessors, the Pew Center said.

“My eyes are always open to everything, including studies like these,” said Jon Banner, executive producer of ABC’s “World News.” ”I do not program the news by studies or by anything else, for that matter. I program it by the news of the day and what our journalistic guts tell us.”

He doesn’t pay much attention to the studies parsing his newscast, particularly when done by organizations with a clear point of view.

Given a new president trying to change the direction of two wars and restart the economy, “if we are covering the news, we are covering this administration,” Banner said. “There’s really no way around that.”

Banner said his broadcast isn’t influenced by polls indicating Obama’s popularity. But Pew’s Mark Jurkowitz said it’s hard to get around that as a factor for the positive tone in coverage, especially since the election can be seen as a mandate.

“In many ways, he had a better 100 days than Bush or Clinton,” Jurkowitz said. “He faced huge challenges. He’s had a certain amount of success and it’s clear that the public likes him.”

The newscasts reflect reality, said Rick Kaplan, executive producer of the “CBS Evening News.” He said he believed that the president has done extraordinarily well. “Everybody, including Republicans, would have to say that his first 100 days have been great,” he said.

“You cover what’s out there,” Kaplan said. “Everybody gets upset. If you cover somebody too hard, his supporters think you’re being unfair. If you cover somebody too soft, his opponents think you’re too soft. Across his four years, or eight years, whatever it is, there will be plenty for people on all sides to not like or love. It will balance itself out inevitably.”

NBC anchor Brian Williams said it now appears the nation had a realigning election.

‘It was historic,” he said. “It has changed, fundamentally and forever, the poster of the presidents in front of the classroom. That accounts for the quantity of coverage, and we’re judged on the quality of the coverage every day, as it should be.”

The conservative Media Research Center is doing its own study. While not quite done, its conclusion is already clear: The media “are completely in the tank, working overtime to help (Obama) succeed,” said Brent Bozell, the organization’s president.

On the Net:

www.journalism.org

www.cmpa.com

www.mrc.org/press/2009/press20090427.asp

EDITOR’S NOTE — David Bauder can be reached at dbauder(at)ap.org