“The favorite news outlet of conservatives ranks just ninth in presser questions in President Obama’s first term, getting to ask questions at only half the rate of the ‘Big Three’ broadcast networks,” reports Eric Ostermeier, a University of Minnesota media analyst who literally counted the number of questions at White House press conferences from 2009 through Monday.
Mr. Obama generally favored the “Big Three” — ABC, CBS and NBC — and the Associated Press, the researcher found.
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“As for FOX, these have been relatively lean years in terms of getting the presidential nod at news conferences,” Mr. Ostermeier says.
His analysis finds that ABC reporters have been called on the most frequently during Mr. Obama’s 36 solo news conferences; the president sought them out in 29 of them. CBS reporters made the grade in 28 conferences, followed by the Associated Press with 27, and NBC with 26. Bloomberg News is No. 5 with 20, then Reuters with 17; the New York Times and CNN each with 16.
FOX was called on in just 14 press conferences, Mr. Ostermeier notes.
As for individual reporters, Mr. Obama called on NBC’s Chuck Todd and former ABC White House correspondent Jake Tapper the most during his first term, at 23 times each.
CBS’ Chip Reid is third with 14, followed by Ben Feller (AP) with 13, Julianna Goldman (Bloomberg) with 11, Ed Henry (CNN/FOX) with nine, Hans Nichols (Bloomberg) and Major Garrett (FOX/CBS) with seven. Jackie Calmes (New York Times) and Jennifer Loven (AP) each got six.
See the complete listing here: http://blog.lib.umn.edu/cspg/smartpolitics/
