Damned Librul Media!

LATimes:

The Center for Media and Public Affairs at George Mason University, where researchers have tracked network news content for two decades, found that ABC, NBC and CBS were tougher on Obama than on Republican John McCain during the first six weeks of the general-election campaign.

You read it right: tougher on the Democrat.

During the evening news, the majority of statements from reporters and anchors on all three networks are neutral, the center found. And when network news people ventured opinions in recent weeks, 28% of the statements were positive for Obama and 72% negative.

Network reporting also tilted against McCain, but far less dramatically, with 43% of the statements positive and 57% negative, according to the Washington-based media center.

The poor media has been beaten and battered by conservatives for so long that even the "Obamessiah," for whom they are all supposedly in the tank, cannot get their support. John McCain, on the other hand, who has called the media his "base" again and again, complains that the media loves Obama. What a whiner. This looks like Pro-Obama bias to me:



That's the Associated Press giving McCain his favorite donuts and coffee, by the way, just to make sure he's comfortable for the interview, which I'm sure was an absolute grilling. I'm sure they're just buttering him up before-hand to make him an easier target. Right.

You might wonder why the AP, the wire service that provides content for most of America's small newspapers, is bending over backwards to make McCain happy. Perhaps it is because the head of the AP's all important Washington Bureau went through a multi-month job negotiation with the McCain campaign before he clinched the nomination. Or perhaps it was the adoring e-mails from the same new bureau-head to Karl Rove, whose proteges now run McCain's campaign.

In any case, regardless of studies about who people in the news industry contribute money to, you cannot make the case that the media is liberal any longer. The gopher in the basement and the copywriter in the newsroom do not set agendas - the corporation does. When the ultimate source in straight news - the AP - is literally in bed with the McCain campaign, the conservative persecution complex on this issue must come to an end.

Then again, playing the persecuted victim is one of the Republican's great strengths, so I expect them to keep it up. Why stop doing something that works so well? Especially when the media plays along?