WaPo’s Howard Kurtz sums up the media coverage of Barack Obama’s week abroad; what the trip meant for the candidate and the press following him.
…even as the likes of NBC’s Andrea Mitchell and ABC’s Jake Tapper rose to press the Democratic candidate on Tuesday, television viewers back home heard nothing but faint voices in the wind. The journalists weren’t miked; only Obama’s answers came through loud and clear. That may have been unintentional, but it underscored the degree to which Obama has controlled the message…
As for the star anchors, who all got interviews with Obama this week, Kurtz writes they “earned their paychecks.”
CBS’s Katie Couric repeatedly pressed Obama on why he wouldn’t acknowledge the military success of Bush’s surge in Iraq. ABC’s Charlie Gibson asked about public sentiment that he’s inexperienced and challenged him about changing his position on the status of Jerusalem, questioning whether that was a “rookie mistake.” NBC’s Brian Williams invoked a poll finding that a majority of Americans view him as the riskier choice for president. All three newscasts, whether out of guilt or a sense of fairness, also featured interviews with McCain.
Meanwhile, Fox News conducted a poll that found 67% of those asked believe most in the media want Obama to win in November.