The media is accused of a liberal bias and of being all too kind in coverage of Barack Obama. What can clickstream data tell us about this bias and the red-blue divide in America?
First let’s look at how much traffic News and Media websites send to BarackObama.com and to JohnMcCain.com. The following chart shows the percent of dowstream visits from News and Media websites to the candidate websites.

Obama is cleary receiving much more traffic from News and Media websites than McCain. However, you will also notice that the McCain website has been receiving more traffic from News and Media websites in the past few weeks and is closing the gap to Obama. Hillary Clinton conceded on June 7. that precedes the precipitous drop you see in June above in traffic to Obama’s website. As you’d expect, the attention to Clinton and Obama during the tight race benefited their profiles and drove traffic. So, perhaps the initial difference in traffic was a result of the Democratic race, rather than an inherent bias.
As the race has shifted to focus on Obama versus McCain, McCain has begun to receive a larger share of traffic from News and Media sites but still far below that of Obama. McCain’s website is also starting to gather steam in overall visits. Last week, Obama’s website received more than two and a half times more traffic than McCain’s website. That gap is down from a four-fold gap two weeks ago. Also interesting, 59% of visits to Obama’s website are new visitors whereas 82% are new to McCain’s website, indicating that Obama is attracting repeat visitors whereas McCain is attracting new visitors.
Never the Twain Shall Meet
In terms of which News and Media websites are sending visits to the candidate websites, the following two tables list the top ten News and Media sites sending visits to the Obama and McCain websites.


Notice that there is only one website in common between these lists, Yahoo! News. This suggests that the divide in America is as deep as ever. With blues and reds receiving their news from such different sources, it is difficult to imagine that divide decreasing.
The list also reveals an interesting view of competitors for publishers covering the election. Clickstream data often reveals surprises in who you are competing with for traffic online. I am sure that Fox has an eye on The Drudge Report but what about WorldNetDaily?