SHOCKER: Biased Press is Biased

This will surprise no one, although it’s still an important work in that it shows the numbers proving what every honest person already feels:

A sweeping study of some 130,213 news articles on the 2012 presidential match between President Obama and Mitt Romney has proven anew that there was a strong pro-Democratic bias in the U.S. and international press.

The study, published in the authoritative journal Big Data & Society, also tested the campaign themes the media focused on and determined that Obama succeeded in stealing the economic issue from Republican Romney.

“The 2012 elections saw an ‘issue trespassing’ strategy with President Obama taking the initiative on the economy,” found the survey of stories produced by 719 U.S. and international outlets.

A more important study would look into the issue deeper, however. As Ace noted a while ago, the press has gone from merely biased to openly partisan. During the 2012 cycle it began with former-and-still Democrat Operative George Stephanopoulos preparing the groundwork for the War on Women during an early GOP primary debate, and ended with Candy Crowley putting her thumb firmly on the scales during the Obama-Romney foreign policy debate.

But I’d love to see an in-depth study of exactly when the press made this vital transition.