B&C’s John Eggerton breaks down the latest Pew study on coverage of the 2008 campaign. It found Sen. Hillary Clinton did not get tougher press coverage than Sen. Barack Obama “when it came to the main themes about their character, history, leadership qualities and overall appeal.” And there’s this, about how the cable networks’ ‘positive’ stories on the candidates:

69% of the assertions about Obama on Fox News Channel were positive, versus 54% for Clinton. And both far outdistanced Sen. John McCain, with only 45%.

On CNN, Clinton was the clear winner, with 70% positives versus 59% for Obama and 49% for McCain.

The most even-handed, at least toward the Democrats, was MSNBC, the researchers concluded, with 72% positives for Clinton and 70% for Obama (McCain got 53%).