Vitriolic coverage: Study examines why Fox News viewers hate Obama
Those who think the growing popularity of highly-partisan opinion shows is tearing the United States apart now have some empiric evidence on their side.
Research published in the September issue of Political Research Quarterly has found pundits on political opinion shows influence attitudes toward presidential candidates and in a way that is entirely negative.
An increasing number of Americans engage in selective exposure to ideologically consistent news sources. This fact has caused some scholars and pundits to worry that partisan news sources such as Fox News are making their audiences more polarized, Glen Smith of the University of North Georgia and Kathleen Searles of Augusta State University wrote in their study.
The researchers found Fox News viewers became more favorable of McCain and less favorable of Obama over the course of the 2008 presidential election. Both Foxs news programs and opinion shows made viewers more favorable of McCain and less favorable of Obama, but the effect was stronger for those who watched the opinion shows. The study also found MSNBCs opinion shows had the converse effect, viewers became more favorable of Obama and less favorable of McCain.