Grade A Media? Depends On The Question

WASHINGTON (AllPolitics, Nov. 19) -- Journalists should know this by now: All you have to do is ask the question right.

A Pew Research Center poll released just after the election asked voters to grade the press on "the way they conducted themselves during the campaign." Six percent gave the press an A, 22 percent a B, 33 percent a C, 19 percent a D and 18 percent an F. Not exactly a report card to brag about.

But the situation brightened considerably for the press when the Freedom Forum asked voters in a more general way to grade "media coverage." Fourteen percent gave an A, 40 percent a B, 28 percent a C, 9 percent a D and only 6 percent an F.

Most respondents in the Freedom Forum poll thought that major party coverage was fair; eight of 10 thought GOP nominee Bob Dole was treated fairly, and nine of 10 thought President Bill Clinton was. But nearly half said coverage of Reform Party nominee Ross Perot was less than fair.

The Freedom Forum poll was conducted by the University of Connecticut's Roper Center from Nov. 6-11. It surveyed 1,051 registered voters, and the margin of error was +/- 3 percentage points.

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