Examines coverage in three leading newspapers, finding that explicit assessments of the 1992 presidential candidates' character were present in seven percent of all news articles and one-third of op-ed items, with the vast majority unfavorable. Shows that Bill Clinton was consistently assessed as a "slippery obfuscator," George Bush as an "inept dissembler," and H. Ross Perot as an "arrogant paranoid." (SR)