Hess, who regularly analyzes and comments on the Fourth Estate, undertook a comprehensive, nine-week examination of how well the major television networks cover the election race. The project began on Labor Day, the traditional kick-off date of presidential campaigns.

Funded by a substantial grant from The Pew Charitable Trusts, and working with screeners from the Center for Media and Public Affairs, Hess issued a weekly report analyzing television coverage of the campaign by ABC, CBS, NBC, and PBS.

His analysis was based on such criteria as: the length of stories; the amount of airtime devoted to polls or commentary as opposed to the amount devoted to issues; fairness and balance; and tone.

Results of the Hess research were published weekly on the Brookings website, and Hess elaborated on his findings Fridays on CNN’s "Inside Politics" program, and Mondays in a column in USA Today. As part of this project, Hess also gave four awards each week for outstanding campaign coverage.

(Read more about the project)