Voters Rate the Coverage by News Media as Mediocre : Survey: More than half gave the press a grade of C or below for its campaign reporting. Election Day polling was conducted for Times Mirror Center.

Washington politicians weren’t the only victims of voter disgust this year. The country’s news media also got a less-than-encouraging report card for campaign coverage, exit polling showed.

In exit polls conducted for the Times Mirror Center for The People & The Press, 59% of those surveyed gave the press a grade of C or below for coverage of the midterm congressional and gubernatorial races.

Only 38% said the news media deserved an A or B for good to excellent coverage. Respondents were asked to grade the press for coverage of Senate, House and gubernatorial races.

The results were based on interviews with 20,000 people leaving their polling places.

The average in 12 states surveyed was a C for coverage of the campaign that resulted in a Republican takeover of the Congress and significant GOP gains in governors’ races.

None of the states surveyed reached a B grade overall for the press.

Eight percent of those polled gave the press an F overall, while 7% gave the news media an A.

The voter view of the news media seemed tied to the electorate’s turn to the right and to the Republican Party. Those who voted Republican had a more negative view of the press than those who voted Democratic.

White males, whose swing to the GOP this year contributed significantly to putting Congress in Republican hands, gave the press failing grades more often--12% of the time--than white females or black men and women, who gave the news media an F 6% of the time.

Whites in general were more critical, with only 28% giving the press grades of good to excellent, compared with 46% among blacks and 62% among Latinos.

Regionally, the press got somewhat better grades in the South and West than in the East and Midwest, according to the exit polling.

The only state of 12 surveyed where more than half the voters, 56%, said the media did a good or excellent job was Massachusetts. Respondents rated the coverage of the Senate race between Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, who was reelected, and Republican challenger Mitt Romney.

Voters polled in California, where Sen. Dianne Feinstein narrowly won over Republican Rep. Mike Huffington after engaging in a nasty battle for the Senate, gave press coverage a C-minus.

Virginia voters, who reelected Sen. Charles S. Robb over Republican Oliver L. North, rated coverage a C overall.

Two other states that showed particularly low press ratings were Michigan and Pennsylvania, where supporters of GOP Senate candidates Spencer Abraham and Rick Santorum were especially critical.

As much as anything, people interviewed by pollsters were “voting against the press,” said Andrew Kohut, director of the Times Mirror Center.

“Even among the Democrats and liberal groups of people, they weren’t ecstatic about the press,” he said. “People value the watchdog role the press plays, but they think the watchdog goes a little berserk sometimes.”

The poll, by Mitofsky International, focused on coverage of the gubernatorial races in Arizona, Connecticut, Florida, Maryland, New York and Texas, and the Senate races in California, Massachusetts, Michigan, Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Virginia.

It also questioned voters on coverage of the House contests in those 12 states.