The sound bites, the biters, and the bitten: A two-campaign test of the anti-incumbent bias hypothesis in network TV news

This study is the first longitudinal study to address two separate lines of research-sound bite research ann news bins research-within a single networ k TV news study. Presidential and vice presidential campaign stories from C ampaign '92 (ninety-nine newscasts) and Campaign '96 (100 newscasts) were a nalyzed to test the anti-incumbent bias hypothesis. The overall conclusions of this study were that (a) the anti-incumbent bias hypothesis received on ly minimal support, and (b) ill both campaigns, Republicans tended to be ne gatively bitten more often than Democrats. bl this respect, the networks me re not equal-opportunity biters.