The "rhetorical presidency" meets the press: The New York Times and the State of the Union Message

In the modern era, presidential public addresses have become important poli tical tools, bill need favorable media coverage to succeed. Yet little is k nown about how media cover these events. This study examines New York Times coverage of State of the Union Messages to test four sets of possible infl uences on the press- objective reality, liberal bias, the " credibility gap , " and "news" biases toward the "game" of politics. It finds the news bias es to be the most powerful explanation, indicating that the political " sta te of the President " determines the tone of coverage more than a liberal b ias, the " credibility gap " of recent years, or even the " actual " state of union itself.