Wag the Blog: Media Bias?
By Chris Cillizza
It seems that every social event The Fix attends — and that list includes plane flights, field hockey games and shopping with Mrs. Fix, among others — there is someone who asks about bias in the media.
Usually the “inquiry” comes in the form of an assertion — the media is far too liberal or, almost as often these days, the media is far too conservative. Evidence is cited (Sarah Palin! Joe Biden! Bill Ayers! Charles Keating!) that seems to make the airtight case that the press is, after all, biased.
While The Fix tends to disagree with most of these assessments — in our experience, reporters are just trying to get the news right and first — a report by our own Ombudswoman Deborah Powell that says the Post coverage was biased toward Barack Obama caught our eye.
After reciting a litany of numbers — 946 stories about Obama since Nov. 12, 2007 to 768 for John McCain — Howell concludes:
“Obama deserved tougher scrutiny than he got, especially of his undergraduate years, his start in Chicago and his relationship with Antoin ‘Tony’ Rezko, who was convicted this year of influence-peddling in Chicago. The Post did nothing on Obama’s acknowledged drug use as a teenager.”
