Republican senators are being quoted far more often in mainstream and social media than their Democratic counterparts, and Sen. John McCain is leading the pack, according to a new survey.
McCain and other Republicans have more than twice as many stories referencing them than opposing Democratic senators, the
National Journal reports, quoting from a survey conducted by
the University of Minnesota’s Smart Politics.
Republicans are especially dominating social media, with McCain, the Republican senator from Arizona, leading the way. Throughout the first half of the 2012 year, McCain was the subject of more than twice as many news stories as opposing Democrats.
In fact, Republicans genuinely seem more popular, holding 8 out of 10 slots for most mentioned political figure. Republican GOP senators had 5,894 stories revolving around them, compared to the 2,672 stories for Democrats.
According to the Smart Politics review of transcripts from various broadcasting news channels, such as ABC, CBS, CNN, FOX, MSNBC, NBC and NPR, McCain has been featured in more than 10 news stories per day. Other Democratic senators haven't been mentioned in half as many stories as McCain.
Sen. McCain, who is neither a presidential candidate nor holds a GOP leadership position, has been mentioned in a total of 1,958 news stories within the first 182 days of 2012. Sen. Marco Rubio from Florida, also Republican, has had his fair share of attention as well, ranking him second with an average of 4.6 stories a day.
Third and fourth are the only two Democrats in the ranks: Nevada Sen. Harry Reid, the senate majority leader, and former presidential candidate John Kerry, the senator from Massachusetts. The fifth through tenth rankings don't range in party, and are exclusively Republican.
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