While balance and fairness are important journalistic norms worthy of research, many previous studies have only examined them in the electoral context. A content analysis of news coverage of State of Union Messages from 1982-2013 on ABC, CBS, and NBC, tests for balance in tone as well as sourcing between the President's side and the partisan opposition. It also addresses partisan or ideological biases. Despite the customary opposition response, coverage showed sourcing imbalances favoring the President the vast majority of time on all networks. Though the overall tone was neutral, non-partisan and media sources were decidedly negative. Democratic presidents received more favorable coverage than Republicans, though Republican presidents were somewhat more likely to receive airtime advantage. ABC also appeared more balanced than the other two. Journalists may be balancing the presidency's institutional bias with critical outside voices, and tempering a Democratic tonal bias with greater use of Republican sound bites.
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