Liberal Media

I've read the argument that there is a lot of press that favors the political right, but I remain convinced that the mainstream media leans very heavily to the left. By mainstream media I mean the standard newsources that regular people rely on to be informed such as major newspapers, TV news, and major internet news outlets. (Fox News may be the exception, although I still think that they are just outside of mainstream, with CNN having quite a bit more name recognition as a news source). On that note I just had to post this example of seemingly objective news sources printing blatantly partisan babble. This came from Yahoo News, and it reports that McCain is suspending his campaign until this credit crisis is solved and Obama is not. Click here to read the entire article.

The part I found most interesting (or should I say appauling) is the tenth and elevent paragraphs:

Even as McCain said he was putting the good of the country ahead of politics, his surprise announcement was clearly political. It was an attempt to try to outmaneuver Obama on an issue in which he's trailing, the economy, as the Democrat gains in polls. He quickly went before TV cameras minutes after speaking with Obama and before the two campaigns had hammered out a joint statement expressing that Congress should act urgently on the bailout.

And while McCain's campaign said he would "suspend" his campaign, it simply will move to Washington knowing the spotlight will remain on him no matter where he is.

This is not an opinion, editorial, or column. It is supposed to be a report. But this author implies, if not outright accuses McCain of making this decision purely out of political ambitions. That is not reporting.

In an attempt to seem objective, the author references Obama's political calculations in much less critical terms:

Obama, too, made a political calculation by rejecting McCain's challenge while trying to still appear on top of the problem. Obama repeatedly stressed at his news conference that he called McCain first to propose that they issue a joint statement in support of a package to help fix the economy as soon as possible. He said McCain called back several hours later, as Obama was leaving a rally in Florida, and agreed to the idea of a statement but also said he wanted to postpone the debate and hold joint meetings in Washington.

Embedded into this analysis is yet more criticism of McCain: "McCain called back several hours later as he was leaving a rally in Florida," implies that McCain wasn't interested in talking with Obama but rather in campaigning. "Obama repeatedly stressed...that he called first to propose that they issue a join statement" is clearly not a criticism of Obama but a praise. Somehow calling Obama on political calculations amoutns to pushing his message for him, but calling McCain on his is an expose' on McCain true, evil intentions.