McCain, Rubio, GOP Dominate Broadcast Media Coverage of US Senators in 2012

Republican senators are mentioned in more than twice as many news stories as their Democratic counterparts with John McCain and Marco Rubio leading the GOP to eight of the Top 10 slots

They don’t chair any committees and none of them ran for president this cycle.

In fact, only six are currently running for reelection to their seat in 2012.

But that has not stopped Republican U.S. Senators from dominating the media coverage among members of the nation’s upper legislative chamber so far this year.

And it’s not even close.

A Smart Politics review of broadcast media transcripts by ABC, CBS, CNN, FOX, MSNBC, NBC, and NPR for the first six months of 2012 finds that Republican U.S. Senators have been mentioned in more than twice as many news stories as their Democratic counterparts with John McCain leading the field at more than 10 stories per day.

The U.S Senate’s 100 members were mentioned at least once in more than 8,500 news stories across these seven broadcast outlets under analysis.

Republicans were most commonly referenced, holding eight of the Top 10 slots and 17 of the Top 25.

All told, the GOP senators were mentioned in 5,894 stories compared to just 2,672 for the Democrats, or 121 percent more stories.

(Note: This analysis did not code for the type of coverage each senator received (i.e. content) nor is the data weighted by multiple mentions of a senator within a single news story).

At the top of the list was a senator who has frequently been called a “media darling” ever since his first presidential run 12 years ago – Arizona’s John McCain.

McCain, who does not hold a GOP leadership position, was mentioned in 1,958 news stories during the first 182 days of the year – or an average of 10.8 stories per day.

No other senator from either party received even half this amount of attention.

The next closet senator is one of the most junior members of the legislative body – Florida’s Marco Rubio – who was mentioned in 830 stories, or an average of 4.6 per day.

Rubio has been a buzzworthy U.S. Senator ever since taking office in January 2011, and his name has been frequently dropped as a potential 2012 vice presidential nominee for the party during the year which boosted his media profile.

Other Republicans from the U.S. Senate who have been in Mitt Romney’s fishbowl of possible running mates include Ohio’s Rob Portman who came in at #7 (202 stories), Kentucky’s Rand Paul at #8 (198), New Hampshire’s Kelly Ayotte at #21 (90), and South Dakota’s John Thune at #22 (87).

Senator Rubio has garnered almost twice the amount of attention so far this year as the most powerful man in the U.S. Senate – Democratic Majority Leader Harry Reid.

Nevada’s senior senator was mentioned in 448 stories through the first six months of the year, or an average 2.5 per day across the seven outlets under analysis, good for third place overall.

Besides Reid, the only other Democrat to appear in the Top 10 is 2004 Democratic presidential nominee and Massachusetts Senator John Kerry at #4, who was mentioned in 430 stories.

Rounding out the Top 10 are Kentucky U.S. Senator and Minority Leader Mitch McConnell at #5 (366 stories), South Carolina’s Lindsey Graham at #6 (204), Portman at #7 (202), Paul at #8 (198), South Carolina’s Jim DeMint at #9 (191), and Massachusetts’ Scott Brown at #10 (180).

Republican U.S. Senators receiving stiff intra-party challenges this cycle also received significant coverage with Indiana’s Dick Lugar at #15 (151 stories) and Utah’s Orrin Hatch at #17 (118).

Senator McCain’s high ranking in media coverage has been due in part to multiple references in news stories to his performance in the 2008 election cycle when he was the Republican Party’s presidential nominee.

(The same holds true – to a lesser extent – for John Kerry coming in at #4).

But McCain has also been a point man for the media on issues related to foreign affairs and immigration.

Although an elite group, the U.S. Senate is still a very large body and not every member gets noticed by the media.

Less than 20 U.S. Senators were mentioned in 100+ stories across these seven media outlets, less than 40 appeared in 50 news stories, and one-quarter of the chamber failed to get mentioned in 10 news stories during this six-month period.

Many in that latter grouping were senators from states with small populations.

No senator ranking in the Bottom 9 slots came from a state with 10 or more Electoral College votes: Republicans Jim Risch (Idaho), John Boozman (Arkansas), Thad Cochran (Mississippi), Roger Wicker (Mississippi), and Mike Enzi (Wyoming) and Democrats Jeff Bingaman (New Mexico), Tom Udall (New Mexico), and Daniel Akaka (Hawaii).

The focus on Republican senators over their Democratic counterparts was pervasive with GOPers mentioned at nearly twice the rate of Democrats across the board with NPR (at 1.89 to 1), MSNBC (1.99 to 1), and FOX (2.01) having the least partisan disparity on this scale.

ABC (3.83 to 1), CNN (2.53 to 1), NBC (2.33 to 1), and CBS (2.07) demonstrated a greater focus on the GOP officeholders.

U.S. Senator Mentions in Broadcast Media Reports, January-June 2012

Rank	State	Senator	Party	Reports
1	Arizona	John McCain	Republican	1,958
2	Florida	Marco Rubio	Republican	830
3	Nevada	Harry Reid	Democrat	448
4	Massachusetts	John Kerry	Democrat	430
5	Kentucky	Mitch McConnell	Republican	366
6	South Carolina	Lindsey Graham	Republican	204
7	Ohio	Rob Portman	Republican	202
8	Kentucky	Rand Paul	Republican	198
9	South Carolina	Jim DeMint	Republican	191
10	Massachusetts	Scott Brown	Republican	180
11	Iowa	Chuck Grassley	Republican	174
12	Connecticut	Joe Lieberman	Ind-Dem	162
13	New York	Chuck Schumer	Democrat	157
14	California	Dianne Feinstein	Democrat	155
15	Indiana	Dick Lugar	Republican	151
16	Maine	Olympia Snowe	Republican	121
17	Oklahoma	Tom Coburn	Republican	118
17	Utah	Orrin Hatch	Republican	118
19	Maine	Susan Collins	Republican	117
20	Illinois	Dick Durbin	Democrat	99
21	New Hampshire	Kelly Ayotte	Republican	90
22	South Dakota	John Thune	Republican	87
23	California	Barbara Boxer	Democrat	74
24	Pennsylvania	Bob Casey	Democrat	71
25	Wisconsin	Ron Johnson	Republican	67
26	Missouri	Claire McCaskill	Democrat	66
27	Alabama	Jeff Sessions	Republican	61
27	Missouri	Roy Blunt	Republican	61
29	Michigan	Carl Levin	Democrat	60
29	New York	Kirsten Gillibrand	Democrat	60
29	Texas	John Cornyn	Republican	60
32	Vermont	Bernie Sanders	Independent	57
33	Virginia	Mark Warner	Democrat	54
34	Arizona	Jon Kyl	Republican	51
34	Pennsylvania	Pat Toomey	Republican	51
34	Utah	Mike Lee	Republican	51
34	Vermont	Patrick Leahy	Democrat	51
38	Ohio	Sherrod Brown	Democrat	50
39	Washington	Patty Murray	Democrat	49
40	Alaska	Lisa Murkowski	Republican	48
40	West Virginia	Joe Manchin	Democrat	48
42	Nebraska	Ben Nelson	Democrat	43
43	Oklahoma	James Inhofe	Republican	42
44	Florida	Bill Nelson	Democrat	40
44	Wyoming	John Barrasso	Republican	40
46	Texas	Kay Bailey Hutchison	Republican	37
47	New Jersey	Robert Menendez	Democrat	36
47	North Dakota	Kent Conrad	Democrat	36
49	Georgia	Saxby Chambliss	Republican	34
50	Oregon	Ron Wyden	Democrat	32
51	Minnesota	Al Franken	Democrat	27
52	Illinois	Mark Kirk	Republican	26
52	Montana	Jon Tester	Democrat	26
54	New Jersey	Frank Lautenberg	Democrat	25
54	Rhode Island	Sheldon Whitehouse	Democrat	25
54	Tennessee	Bob Corker	Republican	25
57	Michigan	Debbie Stabenow	Democrat	24
58	Connecticut	Richard Blumenthal	Democrat	23
58	Maryland	Barbara Mikulski	Democrat	23
60	Montana	Max Baucus	Democrat	22
61	Iowa	Tom Harkin	Democrat	21
61	Louisiana	David Vitter	Republican	21
63	Minnesota	Amy Klobuchar	Democrat	17
64	Alabama	Richard Shelby	Republican	14
64	Tennessee	Lamar Alexander	Republican	14
66	Indiana	Dan Coats	Republican	13
67	Arkansas	Mark Pryor	Democrat	12
67	New Hampshire	Jeanne Shaheen	Democrat	12
67	Oregon	Jeff Merkley	Democrat	12
67	South Dakota	Tim Johnson	Democrat	12
71	Idaho	Mike Crapo	Republican	10
71	Nevada	Dean Heller	Republican	10
71	Rhode Island	Jack Reed	Democrat	10
71	Virginia	Jim Webb	Democrat	10
75	Colorado	Michael Bennet	Democrat	9
75	Colorado	Mark Udall	Democrat	9
75	Delaware	Chris Coons	Democrat	9
75	Louisiana	Mary Landrieu	Democrat	9
75	Maryland	Ben Cardin	Democrat	9
75	North Carolina	Richard Burr	Republican	9
75	Washington	Maria Cantwell	Democrat	9
82	Alaska	Mark Begich	Democrat	8
82	Georgia	Johnny Isakson	Republican	8
82	Kansas	Jerry Moran	Republican	8
82	Nebraska	Mike Johanns	Republican	8
86	Delaware	Tom Carper	Democrat	6
86	Kansas	Pat Roberts	Republican	6
86	North Dakota	John Hoeven	Republican	6
86	West Virginia	Jay Rockefeller	Democrat	6
90	North Carolina	Kay Hagan	Democrat	5
90	Wisconsin	Herb Kohl	Democrat	5
92	Idaho	Jim Risch	Republican	4
93	New Mexico	Jeff Bingaman	Democrat	3
93	New Mexico	Tom Udall	Democrat	3
95	Hawaii	Daniel Akaka	Democrat	2
96	Arkansas	John Boozman	Republican	1
96	Hawaii	Daniel Inouye	Democrat	1
96	Mississippi	Thad Cochran	Republican	1
96	Mississippi	Roger Wicker	Republican	1
96	Wyoming	Mike Enzi	Republican	1

Table compiled by Smart Politics with data culled from Lexis/Nexis news transcripts of ABC, CBS, CNN, FOX, MSNBC, NBC, and NPR. Note: Not all MSNBC news programs are indexed by Lexis/Nexis.

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