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July 17, 2008
Posted: 04:59 PM ET
Click the play button to see what Jack and our viewers had to say.(PHOTO CREDIT: GETTY IMAGES) FROM CNN’s Jack Cafferty: When Barack Obama travels overseas to Europe and the Middle East, he won’t be alone. Obama’s trip is becoming a media extravaganza. All three network anchors will join him – broadcasting their nightly newscasts from stops along his route. Also along to record Obama’s every move, top political reporters from major newspapers and magazines. 200 journalists have asked to join Obama on the trip, although the campaign will only be able to accommodate about 20% of them. Meanwhile, Republican John McCain has taken 3 foreign trips in the last 4 months, and not a single network anchor has gone on any of them. It’s causing some concern among Republicans that the news media aren’t giving balanced coverage. They may have a point. The three broadcast network newscasts, which have 20 million viewers combined, spent about 114 minutes covering Obama since June, compared to 48 minutes for McCain. Obama has been on the cover of Time and Newsweek magazines 12 times in the last 3 years, compared with 5 for McCain. And in the last few weeks, Obama has also landed on the cover of Rolling Stone and US Weekly, along with interview of his family by “Access Hollywood.” The TV executives have lots of reasons for why this Obama trip is such a big deal: it’s his first overseas trip since becoming the presumptive nominee, he’s a fresh face in politics, the historic nature of Obama’s campaign, and the overwhelming interest in him overseas. Those are all valid. But that doesn’t mean McCain has to like it. Here’s my question to you: Why does Barack Obama get more news coverage than John McCain? Interested to know which ones made it on air?
Bob from Murphy, North Carolina writes: Susan from Culver City, California writes: Bob from Cottonwood, California writes: Dave from Brooklyn, New York writes: Tina writes: Laura writes: Brad from Ohio writes: Mike from Vegas writes: Filed under: Barack Obama John McCain Media Coverage
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