Report Summary

With few exceptions, American voters were not very pleased with the way the press covered the fall election campaign. Exit surveys, which questioned over 20,000 voters as they left the polling booth, found the media getting average or below average grades for its work on the midterm elections. Fewer than half of respondents in Times Mirror Center sponsored surveys in 11 of 12 states gave the press a “grade” of A or B for its election coverage. The news media only managed to get good grades from a majority of the voters for its coverage of the Massachusetts Senate race.