Press Too Tough on the Candidates?

Strong majorities of the public say the press has been fair to John McCain, Barack Obama and Joe Biden. But fewer than four-in-ten (38%) say the press has been fair to Sarah Palin. Many more believe the press has been too tough on Palin (38%) than say it has been too easy (21%). While opinions about Palin coverage are highly partisan, many independents share the view that the press has been too tough on the Alaska governor. Among independents, 41% say the press has been too hard on Palin, 20% say the press has been too easy and 36% say the press has been fair. Public interest in news about the presidential campaign reached a new high last week, though the national news was dominated by coverage of the faltering economy. Fully 57% of the public followed news about the election very closely and another 31% followed developments fairly closely. About a month before Election Day, interest in campaign news is higher now than it has been in previous years in the final days before the election. Among registered voters, 61% say they are following campaign news very closely. On election weekend in 2004, 52% of voters were following campaign news very closely the weekend before the election, traditionally the high point of campaign interest. At the end of the 2000 campaign, only 39% of voters were following campaign news very closely in the days leading up to the election. Fueling the intense interest was the highly anticipated vice presidential debate. In a sign of the great attention paid by the media to the election horse race, half of the public (50%) say they have heard a lot about the latest polls on the presidential contest. Roughly four-in-ten (39%) say they are following the polls a little; just one-in-ten (11%) say they have heard nothing at all about what the polls are showing. Meanwhile, the public is just as familiar with recent political skits on "Saturday Night Live" portraying Palin as they are with the interviews the governor did with CBS's Katie Couric.