In the Washington Times

Tuesday, September 14, 2004

American newspapers tend to give more positive news coverage to the same economic news when Democrats are in the White House, according to a study released yesterday.

"When all types of news are pooled into a single analysis, our results are highly significant. However, the results vary greatly depending upon which economic numbers are being reported," said John R. Lott Jr. and Kevin A. Hassett, both of the American Enterprise Institute.

When GDP growth is reported, Republicans received between 16 percent and 24 percent fewer positive stories for the same economic numbers than Democrats, the study found.

For durable-goods orders, Republicans received between 15 percent and 25 percent fewer positive news stories than Democrats. For unemployment, the difference was between zero percent and 21 percent. Retail sales showed no difference.

Among the Associated Press and the top 10 papers, The Washington Post, Chicago Tribune and The New York Times and the AP tend to be the least likely to report positive news during Republican administrations, while the Houston Chronicle slightly favored Republicans, the study found.