Fox v. MSNBC: Who's more biased?

MSNBC chief — Fox cheerled; we didn’t

By Erik Wemple, WashPost

The Pew Research Center’s Project for Excellence in Journalism spiced up a lumbering news cycle by publishing a study alleging that Fox News and MSNBC intensified their political skew in the homestretch of the presidential race. Fox News, say the findings, pumped up its positive coverage of Republican candidate Mitt Romney in the race’s final week; MSNBC, following its branded progressive bent, went more positive on President Obama. In the words of the study itself:

[W]hen Romney was receiving negative coverage in the final week from the rest of the press, Fox was different; 42% of its segments about him were positive while only 11% were negative. This was more positive than the earlier part of October when 34% of Fox News’ Romney coverage was positive and 9% negative.

MSNBC moved in the other direction. MSNBC’s coverage of Romney during the final week (68% negative with no positive stories in the sample), was far more negative than the overall press, and even more negative than it had been during October 1 to 28 when 5% was positive and 57% was negative.

(More here.)