The Myth of the Media Bias Toward Barack Obama
Former Texas Sen. Phil Gramm, the now resigned economic guru to Sen. John McCain, was right to say there were whiners among us. However, they were really his colleagues in the McCain camp howling over news coverage rather than over economic woes.
It is almost pathetic to see McCain's aides hopping mad over coverage of Sen. Barack Obama's trip to the Middle East and Europe. If that is the crux of their strategy, it is a sure loser in public relations.
After all, McCain himself had criticized his Democratic rival for his failure to visit the war zones earlier. The presumptive GOP nominee then jumped on Obama for what he was saying in Iraq as naive and defeatist. The senator from Arizona had his comeback, and it was carried fully on the networks and in the papers.
The Obama trip is news—pure and simple. The McCain crowd just doesn't like the TV pictures coming out of the trip.
Over the course of the next few months, both candidates are certain to have their highs and lows. Then they will both get a bump during the two conventions in Denver and the Twin Cities.
Is the press having a love affair with Obama? Let's examine the record. He was stung for flip-flopping on intelligence issues and funding for a war he opposes. His numbers on healthcare have been examined and found to be confusing at best. His problems with preachers were covered to a full extent. In his primary marathon with Sen. Hillary Clinton, the attacks on him were widely covered.
News in political campaigns is always seen in the eyes of the beholder. If your candidate is under fire, the press is ganging up on him in favor of the other guy. If the coverage looks too favorable, you yelp about it, too. It has always been this way.
In 1960, much of the press learned its lesson for more fawning coverage of a young and handsome Democratic candidate named John F. Kennedy. By comparison, the dour Republican Richard Nixon had a right to complain.
That was then, and this is now. McCain's aides can howl into the wind (or whine) all they want. It won't be long before some in the Obama crowd will complain that McCain is getting too much favorable coverage as a war hero running ahead of his party's congressional candidates.
Tags: media | presidential election 2008 | Barack Obama | John McCain
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Reader Comments
SO BIAS
I am not a die hard McCain fan. In fact I really like neither of the candidates but if you think that the news is not bias towards Obama you are kidding yourself. Log onto yahoo news, google news, watch CNN or any news network (except fox news) every story shows Obama in a a positive light and McCain in a negative one. (Fox News being the exception. They just kinda live in their own little world) You can read about Obama's love affair with the media here http://www.newsbusters.org/blogs/matthew-sheffield/2008/01/08/nbc-admits-media-love-obama
MEDIA BIAS !!!
The New York Times has definitely abandoned it's journalistic integrity and gone completely in the tank for Barack Obama ... but, they aren't the only ones !!! CNN, Jack Cafferty, MSNBC, the Los Angeles Times,
John Stewart, Colbert, the View, most of Hollywood, the anchors who went overseas with Obama ... just to mention a few!!! And, what's even worse is that they no longer publish, or report opposing views. And, they have denied those they accuse from having a platform from which to respond. To half of America, it's inconceivable that the media would not only do this ... but, that they'd back an empty suit, with over 20 years of anti-American, racist associations, while trashing an American hero with 42 years of service to our country. When I was a kid, I admired the press, which always fought for truth. Now, it's like living in a totalitarian state, where one side controls biased information to the people. To Hollywood and the media ... Joseph Goebbels would be proud !!!
Media bias, media protecting Obama
The mainstream media has not even touched any thing about the Obamas and here is something the media should investigate. Where was Michelle Obama during 9-11 Memorial? Michelle Obama wanted to send poor people to clinics instead of her hospital when they went to her hosiptal's emergency room. How about inveistigating why Obama's Chicago had more murders and killings than death of soliders in Iraq and Afghanistan this summer? Why did radical Islamist Khalid Al-Monsour asked civil rights leader, Percy Sutton, to write a letter for Obama so he could get into Harvad Law? Al-Monsour is paid by rich Saudis. How about finding out how only Barack Obama knew Bill Ayers and Bernardine Dohrn, terrorist bombers and killers of policemen? Why Barack Obama, who has only been in office for less than four years got the 2nd most money for failed financial insitutions Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae, that we the taxpayers, now have to bail out? How about investigating Communist Frank Marshall's association with Barack Obama, during a time when the Soviet Union wanted to destroy the U.S.? How about invesitgating how Obamanauts have tried to block any debate on WGN Radio in Chicago? How about the lawsuit that was filed by a Democrat against Obama? How did Obama get into Pakistan when he was a college student when no American could get in that country? How about the murder of Donald Young, the Gay Choir master at Obama's church? and so much more...
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John W. Mashek covered politics in Washington for four decades with U.S. News & World Report, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, and the Boston Globe. His primary beats were Congress, the White House, and national politics. He covered every presidential election from 1960 to 1996. He was a panelist in three televised presidential debates in 1984, 1988, and 1992.