Was the Media Anti-McCain?

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Jamison Foser, Media Matters for America

The media does not demonstrate a “liberal bias.”  

They did not demonstrate such a bias while obsessing over the phony Whitewater “scandal,” or while misquoting Al Gore in order to accuse him of lying. They did not demonstrate such a bias while uncritically repeating the Bush administration’s flawed and false case for war. And they have not demonstrated such a bias this year.

A recent study purporting to demonstrate that McCain has received “negative” media coverage relied on a dubious methodology under which a news report would be assessed as “negative” if it corrected a false claim made by McCain. That doesn’t indicate “bias” – that’s just good journalism.

Media Matters has documented the news media’s relentless focus on controversies involving Barack Obama, while they ignore similar stories about McCain. Earlier this month we found more than 4,500 reports had mentioned Obama and Bill Ayers – while only a small handful had mentioned McCain’s relationship with Gordon Liddy, who once instructed people to shoot law enforcement agents in the head.  Similarly, the New York Times and Washington Post ran 161 pieces that mentioned Obama and Jeremiah Wright—and only 12 that mentioned McCain’s relationship with another controversial religious figure, John Hagee.

The news media has consistently covered whatever topic or attack John McCain has pushed—from Ayers to ACORN to “Lipstick on a pig.”  

It is only in comparison with the fawning media coverage McCain has benefited from over the past decade that the media appears biased against him this year.