Saturday, August 23, 2008

Imbalance on 2008 US Presidential election covers of Time Magazine

The following is a copy of a letter which I just sent to Time magazine:

After receiving yet another issue of Time magazine with a picture of Barack Obama on the cover (Special Issue: The Democrats, September 1, 2008), I was curious about how often Time had featured Democrats and/or Republicans on covers related to the current 2008 US Presidential election cycle. I found the results surprising, and thought you might too. Democrats have appeared sixteen times, while the GOP has only been on seven times. Additionally, Barack Obama has appeared ten times, six times by himself, while John McCain has only shown up on three issues, and only once by himself. I realize that McCain became the frontrunner relatively late in the race, and that the Democratic primary campaign was decided a few months after the GOP race had ended, but numbers with that kind of imbalance do suggest some level of favoritism, don't you think?

Ryan Reeder
Logan, Utah

Data:

Time magazine covers pertaining to the 2008 US Presidential election which feature Democrats or Democrat-related symbols:

August 28, 2006--Hillary Clinton



October 23, 2006--Barack Obama



May 28, 2007--Al Gore



July 23, 2007--Donkey



November 19, 2007--Hillary Clinton



December 10, 2007--Barack Obama



February 18, 2008--Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama



March 10, 2008--Barack Obama



March 17, 2008--Hillary Clinton



April 21, 2008--Barack Obama



May 5, 2008--Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton



May 19, 2008--Barack Obama



September 1, 2008--Barack Obama




Time magazine covers pertaining to the 2008 US Presidential election which feature Republicans or Republican symbols:

March 26, 2007--Ronald Reagan



May 21, 2007--Mitt Romney



December 24, 2007--Elephants



February 4, 2008--John McCain




Time magazine covers pertaining to the 2008 US Presidential election which feature both Democrats and Republicans or Democrat and Republican symbols:

February 5, 2007--Four Democratic and four Republican candidates (Hillary Clinton, John McCain, Barack Obama, Rudy Giuliani, John Edwards, Mitt Romney, Joseph Biden, Sam Brownback)



September 24, 2007--Three Democratic and two Republican candidates' spouses (Ann Romney, Elizabeth Edwards, Judith Nathan, Michelle Obama, and Bill Clinton. Notably absent--Cindy McCain)



August 11, 2008--John McCain and Barack Obama

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I agree with your findings and there is obviously a bias their. It bothers me. I know that Obama has not really been very friendly towards the press which leads me to think that maybe he prefer's to get elected without the subtle and veiled help from the Liberal media. My hat is off to him for that.