In a recent article from the Chicago Tribune, journalist Timothy J. McNulty draws attention to the coverage of presidential candidate Barack Obama over the past several years. Although coverage of political candidates is key when elections are approaching, Obama's coverage is said to have escalated even before he announced his intent of running for president.
In the last three years, he was at the center of 54 front-page articles in the Tribune. Obama was the main topic in an almost equal number of opinion pieces, editorials, op-eds and articles in the Sunday Perspective section. The number of mentions runs into the thousands, and Obama was at the center of nearly a dozen articles in Tribune features sections as well, from tips on giving up smoking to discussions of his spirituality and what books he reads.
Contrarily, Illinois very own U. S. Senator, Dick Durbin, has not been the main-subject of any front-page stories nor have his thoughts on smoking or spirituality been reported. Is this such a bad thing? Not necessarily, however, the quality of news reporting is very important. Many people support Obama and will likely continue to do so through the election of 2008, and it is the duty of the press to not only report stories about him, but report stories critically.
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