So Barack Obama finally decided to accept John McCains challenge to travel to Iraq and view first-hand the progress American troops have made in the fight against terrorism. However, the premise of the story before Barack Obama even set foot in Iraq was determined beforehand by our mainstream media. No less than 3 major news anchors chose to accompany Obama on his visit to Iraq - Katie Couric, Brian Williams and Charles Gibson. This is almost unheard of in journalistic circles. Journalists traveling in packs are bad journalists. The group mentality of the three major news networks is not to report "outside the box", rather, it is to report how Barack Obama, a foreign policy neophyte, will suddenly come back to the United States with a new understanding of foreign affairs - Barack will be Presidential!!! Which network will be able to gush these beliefs the most? The remarkable ability of the liberal media to think the same way about everything is obvious. It is becoming more and more apparent that just about every member of the mainstream media is a liberal - and they want Obama to be President. The goal of all the major news networks and the likes of Couric, Williams and Gibson is to make Obama look as good as possible. They have already decided before the story even began how they will cover it and what the story will be. It is a sad period for journalism.
Little will be said about Obama's words "the surge is not working", nor his stance against every aspect of the war against terrorism. His pledge to withdraw troops as soon as he is elected will be forgotten. News stories will ignore these statements as if they were never uttered by the Democratic candidate for President.
Is the media playing fair in campaign coverage with John McCain? NO. One example could be Newsweek. Newsweek has had 6 covers of Barack Obama. 2 covers were given to John McCain - and one was very unflattering.
The Project for Excellence in Journalism that evaluates more than 300 political stories per week in magazines, newspapers and on TV also noted that Obama was given 77% coverage in political articles versus 48% coverage to McCain during the week of July 7 through the 13. Project for Excellence in Journalism has also noted that on a week-by-week basis, Obama's coverage has always been exceeding McCains.
The New York Times recently ran an Op-Ed piece concerning Barack Obama's approach to the war in Iraq. The Times also asked John McCain to write an article about the same topic (balanced journalism, right?). Well, John McCain obliged, but the Times didn't like what he had to say, so they refused to publish it. Click on McCains article to see what the New York Times rejected.
No bias in the media. Baloney.