Yet Another Study Shows How Tough the Media Has Been on John McCain

Now some fresh pickings from the Political Grapevine:

Balancing Act

Barack Obama has mentioned FOX News numerous times on the stump, at one point telling a reporter if it were not for FOX News he would be two or three points higher in the polls. But that's not backed up by a new study.

The independent Pew Research Center's Project for Excellence in Journalism looked at coverage in the six weeks following the conventions through the final debate and found on FOX News 40 percent of stories on John McCain were negative, while 40 percent of stories on Obama were also negative.

In contrast, on MSNBC the study found that 73 percent of stories on McCain were negative while Obama received just 14 percent negative coverage on that channel.

On all networks and other media outlets, the Pew Research Center found Obama's coverage to be more positive than negative while McCain's coverage was 57 percent negative to 14 positive.

Out of Context

The conservative Heritage Foundation's think tank is calling on the Obama campaign to pull an ad which it says misrepresents the views of one of its analysts. The ad quotes Rea Hederman as saying, "The middle class would likely pay less under Mr. Obama's plan."

But in a letter to Obama, a lawyer for the foundation writes, "Mr. Hederman never said what is quoted... the words you quote are from a New York Sun reporter who interviewed Mr. Hederman and summarized his views erroneously."

Hederman writes in the National Review, "According to the announcer, I believe the middle class would be better off under the Obama tax plan. This was news to me."

Pet Project

After a Chapel Hill, North Carolina, man had two McCain-Palin campaign signs stolen from his yard, he decided to put his electrical engineering degree to use.

The Charlotte News and Observer reports Shawn Turschak connected a third sign to an electric pet fence and installed a surveillance camera in a nearby tree. What he saw on video was a nine-year-old boy attempting to swap the sign with an Obama-Biden sign.

Needless to say, the boy received the shock of his life and ran away. The boy's father soon showed up at Turschak's home upset that his son had been zapped, claiming the boy was just interested in the sign's construction.

The sheriff says he does not plan to press charges.

Heated Debate

The British Parliament passed a massive piece of global warming legislation Wednesday. The Register newspaper reports the House of Commons spent six hours debating a bill to reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 80 percent over the next four decades.

But this debate over the need for immediate action to deal with the rapidly developing dangers of global warming occurred as Londoners experienced their first October snowfall since 1922. A blanket of snow covered the Parliament as the bill passed on its third reading 463 votes to three.

But, The Register states that recent polling indicates 60 percent of the British public now doubts man's influence on global warming.

— FOX News Channel's Zachary Kenworthy contributed to this report.