The majority – 60 percent – of coverage of John McCain has been negative since the Republican convention. He wins the most negative press coverage over Barack Obama, or any candidates from other parties in this election, according to a report released today by The Pew Research Center’s Project for Excellence in Journalism, a nonpartisan journalism watchdog organization.

For Obama during this period, just over a third of the stories were clearly positive in tone (36%), while a similar number (35%) were neutral or mixed. A smaller number (29%) were negative.

For McCain, by comparison, nearly six in ten of the stories studied were decidedly negative in nature (57%), while fewer than two in ten (14%) were positive.

The study also found that McCain at least gained more attention in the press after the convention, putting him about even with Obama.

Another interesting detail the study found:

Democratic vice presidential nominee Joe Biden was nearly the invisible man. His had just one large moment, the vice presidential debate, which also offered his only positive or neutral contribution. Aside from that week, the limited coverage he did receive was far more negative than Palin’s, and nearly as negative as McCain’s.

The researchers examined stories from 48 media sources – newspapers, news online, television, and radio – beginning after the Republican convention and ending with the final presidential debate