Published: August 02, 2008 11:00 pm            

Media in love with Obama

Comment column

In all deference to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and her recent push to reinvigorate the First Amendment crushing Fairness Doctrine, something does need to be done about the unabashed bias toward Democratic candidate Barack Obama.

I will cite the following example from the New Hampshire Union Leader during a recent visit from Republican candidate John McCain: “In Manchester last night, there was just one reporter and one photographer waiting for McCain as his plane — a white, blue and gold Boeing 737-400 emblazoned with his campaign slogan, ‘Reform, Prosperity, Peace’ — touched down on the Wiggins Airways tarmac,” reported Union Leader Writer Scott Brooks.

At the same time McCain landed in New Hampshire, Obama was half-way across the globe in the Middle East being swarmed by media during his trip to Baghdad.

All of the major media outlets were there when Obama gave a speech from Berlin. It’s as if they hang on his every word. If all we had to go on were the reporting from the country’s major media outlets, most of us would think the election in November is actually scheduled to be a coronation of Obama, rather than a contest between two presidential candidates.

Oh, and just in case you are thinking I am full of hot air, next time you are browsing across the Internet, go to Yahoo News and scroll down to the “Politics” section. Five stories will be listed; at least three will deal with Obama.

There have been instances where McCain has made a policy speech and it will receive a single story. While on the same day, Obama has taken the day off and the Associated Press has chosen to write a story about him going for a bicycle ride.

On July 25, in a listing of four stories, three are about Obama, with McCain getting one story.

Here are the four headlines: “Obama urges Iran to accept EU nuke proposal,” “McCain rejects ‘audacity of hopelessness’ for Iraq,” “Obama camp cites Pentagon in scrapping troop visit,” “Obama veep team floats Republican name.”

One of the basic tenets in journalism is to be “fair and balanced.” While there may be balance inside a story, we have to look at what and what is not being covered.

To an outside observer, it would appear Obama is running for the president of the United States of America as an unopposed candidate.

Now, back to New Hampshire, don’t think McCain and his campaign does not see what is happening as he travels from city to city across the U.S. In an e-mail to Newsmax.com, the McCain campaign hit the nail on the head.

“It’s pretty obvious that the media has a bizarre fascination with Barack Obama. Some may even say it’s a love affair,” the e-mail said. “The media is in love with Barack Obama. If it wasn’t so serious, it would be funny.”

Most of the reporting I do these days has something to do with agriculture. If it doesn’t involve cows or corn, I usually don’t give it a lot of thought. My wife and I don’t have cable out in the country, and we’re not going to pay for the trash companies put on satellite TV, so we get four channels for free, and just a cursory glance at the network news shows that come at 5:30 p.m. everyday show me the people of this country are not getting all of the news, just what they want you to hear.

Everybody reading this realizes I am not telling them anything they don’t know, but sometimes it’s reassuring to know somebody else thinks the same way you do.

As for the campaign, I don’t like either candidate, but one is better than the other. Will it be much of a contest in November, we’ll just have to wait and see because right now it would appear McCain is not putting up much of a fight, but it must be difficult to fight when he has to fight Obama and the press.

I know things will change once we get past Labor Day, but if McCain doesn’t inject some enthusiasm into a so far lackluster campaign, the electoral decision in November may be as one sided as the major media outlets are making it out to be now.

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Wayne Stewart may be reached via e-mail at wstewart@palestineherald.com

        

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