Statistics of candidate mentions on MSNBC, CNN, Fox News compared to polling data

[harikaried]

An article on Mediaite shows numbers for number of candidate mentions on various news channels. They seem quite close to general polling data.
http://www.mediaite.com/tv/msnbc-devoting-more-coverage-to-gop-candidates-than-cnn-or-fox-news/
http://www.realclearpolitics.com/epolls/2012/president/us/republican_presidential_nomination-1452.html

Candidate - news mentions (news%) vs polling% (difference)

Mitt Romney - 3,585 (18.1%) vs 21.5% (+3.4%)
Sarah Palin - 3,285 (16.5%) vs 12.1% (-4.4%)
Michele Bachmann - 3,135 (15.8%) vs 12.9% (-2.9%)
Newt Gingrich - 2,425 (12.2%) vs 4.6% (-7.6%)
Tim Pawlenty - 1,899 (9.6%) vs 2.8% (-6.8%)
Rick Perry - 1,217 (6.1%) vs 11.9% (+5.8%)
Ron Paul - 1,058 (5.3%) vs 8.0% (+2.7%)
Herman Cain - 919 (4.6%) vs 6.3% (+1.7%)
Rick Santorum - 784 (3.9%) vs 1.9% (-2.0%)

[Bruno]

So Ron is getting snubbed quite a bit and Pawlenty and Gingrich are getting talked about more than they deserve. No surprise.

The data does not show positive/negative coverage. I expect in Gingrich's case it is mostly negative lately.

[CaptUSA]

I must live in a strange vacuum, because I hear Rick Perry WAY more often than Gingrich. And more often than Pawlenty.

[bpitas]

I wonder if this takes into account any of the ways that the media takes Dr. Paul out of the picture, like when they show a graphic of the GOP candidates, but don't include a picture of Dr. Paul even though they have people like Sarah Palin who isn't even officially in the race yet. That's what I think does the most harm, it makes it look like he's not a factor anymore....