Broadcast Media in Love with Republican Governors in 2012

GOP governors land the Top 10 spots for the most broadcast reports mentioning their names since January, led by Rick Perry, Chris Christie, Scott Walker, and Rick Scott

A recently released report by Smart Politics found that being an elite 1 of 100 was often not enough for many U.S. Senators to break through the broadcast media – with John McCain and Marco Rubio by far leading the rest of their colleagues and Republican senators overall cited in more than twice as many reports as Democrats.

That partisan disparity in coverage of U.S. Senators, however, seems fair and balanced when stacked up against the distribution of on-air mentions of the nation’s 50 governors.

A Smart Politics review of broadcast media transcripts through Lexis/Nexis by ABC, CBS, CNN, FOX, MSNBC, NBC, and NPR for the first six and a half months of 2012 finds that Republican governors have been mentioned in more than six times as many news stories as their Democratic counterparts with the Top 10 slots all held by GOP executives.

The country’s 50 governors were mentioned at least once in more than 5,400 news stories across these seven broadcast outlets under analysis.

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

The nation’s 29 Republican governors were overwhelmingly the focus in stories reported by the broadcast media, with GOPers holding each of the Top 10 slots for an average of 170 reports per governor, compared to an average of just 27 reports per governor for the nation’s 20 such Democrats.

That means Republican governors were mentioned in 6.3 times more reports than their Democratic counterparts when weighting for the number of governors from each party.

Leading the way is Texas Governor Rick Perry, whose 2012 presidential bid boosted his media profile substantially – even in the waning days of his campaign.

Perry was mentioned in 1,378 reports during this 6.5-month span, with more than 1,250 of these coming in the first 19 days of January before he exited the GOP race in advance of the South Carolina primary.

The Texas governor still would have landed in the Top 10 and ahead of every Democratic governor even if these stories were excluded (with Republicans overall still enjoying nearly a 5:1 weighted advantage).

In second place is media favorite and oft-rumored vice-presidential pick Chris Christie of New Jersey.

Christie was mentioned in 808 broadcast reports – even besting Wisconsin’s Scott Walker who survived a high profile recall election in early June.

Walker was mentioned in 651 reports.

Rounding out the Top 10 are Florida’s Rick Scott at #4 with 301 reports, Indiana’s Mitch Daniels at #5 (290), South Carolina’s Nikki Haley at #6 (281), Arizona’s Jan Brewer at #7 (259), Virginia’s Bob McDonnell at #8 (230), Louisiana’s Bobby Jindal at #9 (167), and Ohio’s John Kasich at #10 (113).

Only five Democrats cracked the Top 20, led by California’s Jerry Brown at #11 (100 reports), New York’s Andrew Cuomo at #12 (81), Massachusetts’ Deval Patrick at #13 (80), Maryland’s Martin O’Malley at #15 (69), and Colorado’s John Hickenlooper at #20 (43).

Interestingly, none of the six gubernatorial incumbents who are running for reelection in 2012 made the Top 30:

· At #33: West Virginia Democrat Earl Ray Tomblin (mentioned in nine reports)
· At #34 (tie): Missouri Democrat Jay Nixon (eight)
· At #39 (tie): North Dakota Republican Jack Dalrymple (six)
· At #39 (tie): Utah Republican Gary Herbert (six)
· At #39 (tie): Vermont Democrat Peter Shumlin (six)
· At #44: Delaware Democrat Jack Markell (four)

The governors with the smallest national media footprint were South Dakota’s Dennis Daugaard and Alaska’s Sean Parnell – both Republicans – who have not been mentioned in a single report yet this year in the programs tracked by Lexis/Nexis in these seven media outlets.

Republicans Matt Mead of Wyoming and Butch Otter of Idaho were mentioned in just one report with Democrats John Kitzhaber of Oregon and Mike Beebe of Arkansas cited in two reports.

The focus on Republican governors over their Democratic counterparts was pervasive throughout the outlets under analysis with MSNBC demonstrating the biggest disparity on this scale at 15:1, followed by FOX (13:1), ABC (10:1), CNN (9:1), NPR (6:1), NBC (5:1), and CBS (4:1).

Mentions of the 50 State Governors in Broadcast Media Reports, January-July* 2012

* Through July 14, 2012. 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.

Follow Smart Politics on Twitter.