Crush Liberalism

Washington comPost ombudsman: Oops…we cover Obama WAY more than McCain!

Ya think?  From the comPost:

Democrat Barack Obama has had about a 3 to 1 advantage over Republican John McCain in Post Page 1 stories since Obama became his party’s presumptive nominee June 4. Obama has generated a lot of news by being the first African American nominee, and he is less well known than McCain — and therefore there’s more to report on. But the disparity is so wide that it doesn’t look good.

In overall political stories from June 4 to Friday, Obama dominated by 142 to 96. Obama has been featured in 35 stories on Page 1; McCain has been featured in 13, with three Page 1 references with photos to stories on inside pages. Fifteen stories featured both candidates and were about polls or issues such as terrorism, Social Security and the candidates’ agreement on what should be done in Afghanistan.
…
Numbers aren’t everything in political coverage, but readers deserve comparable coverage of the candidates.

Naturally, her colleagues see it a tad bit differently:

Bill Hamilton, assistant managing editor for politics, thinks that I’m wrong to put weight on numbers. “We make our own decisions about what we consider newsworthy. We are not garment workers measuring our product every day to fulfill somebody’s quota. That means as editors we decide what we think is important, because that’s what our readers look for us to do — not to adhere to some arbitrary standard.

Ah, yes…the “grand deciders” of newsworthiness! We readers look to them to decide that UFO invasions are more “newsworthy” than a presidential campaign.

I’m sure it’s just a great big ol’ coinkidink, and in no way reflective of any MSM desire to see The One win this November.  I mean, it’s not like the MSM is sending its Big Three network news anchors overseas to follow the Obamessiah while they refuse to follow McCain over there.  Actually, it’s a lot like that.

Nope…no liberal media bias!

August 18, 2008 - Posted by crushliberalism | McCain, media bias, Obama