According to The Nation (citing the results of a recent Pew survey)

Mainstream media coverage of the 2008 presidential campaign so far has been mostly cynical and vacuous. Nine out of ten campaign stories ignore policy and focus instead on electoral tactics and the horse race, according a recent report from the Pew Research Center’s Project for Excellence in Journalism. It is disturbing to consider that most voters learn about candidates either from this shallow coverage or from nationally televised debates. (The first presidential debate of 2004 drew 63 million viewers.)

The above article actually focuses on an alternative to passively accepting horserace political coverage:

Yet now the netroots–that amorphous collection of bloggers, political operatives and web activists–is trying to transcend politics as usual by pushing candidates and reporters to focus on the issues. At the second annual YearlyKos Convention in Chicago the first week of August, web activists plan to explore new ways to communicate voter concerns to Democratic presidential candidates.