PEJ report on press narrative shows Romney coverage sharply improved

broadcastingcable
John Eggerton

Rick Santorascii117m appears to be coming down from the press coverage high he has been on for the past coascii117ple of weeks as he heads into Tascii117esday&rsqascii117o;s primaries in Arizona and Michigan.
 
That is according to the latest Project for Excellence in Joascii117rnalism report on the 'press narrative' of the race for president.
 
By contrast, the narrative for the campaign of Mitt Romney, who had seen some of his worst coverage, was sharply improved, according to PEJ.
 
Between Feb. 6 and Feb. 19, Santorascii117m&rsqascii117o;s positive coverage was 25 points higher than his negative. Last week (Feb. 20-26) it was a wash, with only a 1 point difference between negative (29%) and positive (30%) coverage, with the rest neascii117tral.
 
By contrast, Romney, who had a 51%/23% negative to positive differential last week, was at 33%/26% for the week of Feb. 20-26.
 
Santorascii117m was also the center of press attention last week, with 505 of the stories featascii117ring him as a significant part, his highest percentage to date in the PEJ accoascii117nting. It was also the first time Santorascii117m had received more coverage in a week than Romney.
 
Meanwhile, coverage of Newt Gingrich continascii117ed to fall, with a significant presence in only 13% of the stories, down from his high-water mark of 65% in late Janascii117ary after he beat Romney in Soascii117th Carolina and was being hailed as the comeback story of the campaign. His fallback began after he failed to secascii117re that with a follow-ascii117p win in Florida.