Media bias - a journalist speaks out

Thank God there are still some honest journalists left! Michael S. Malone of ABCNews.com has restored my hope that someday a career in journalism can be something more than that of pro-government propagandist.

Mr. Malone had the courage to take on his peers in this article posted on ABCNews.com on October 24th. From the opening paragraphs to the end of his essay he expresses deep concern for the future of his craft in light of the fawning obsequiousness of Big Media (the BM for short) with regard to their lord and savior, Barack Hussein Obama.

The traditional media are playing a very, very dangerous game -- with their readers, with the Constitution and with their own fates.

The sheer bias in the print and television coverage of this election campaign is not just bewildering, but appalling. And over the last few months I've found myself slowly moving from shaking my head at the obvious one-sided reporting, to actually shouting at the screen of my television and my laptop computer.

But worst of all, for the last couple weeks, I've begun -- for the first time in my adult life -- to be embarrassed to admit what I do for a living. A few days ago, when asked by a new acquaintance what I did for a living, I replied that I was "a writer," because I couldn't bring myself to admit to a stranger that I'm a journalist.

This is a man who is obviously concerned not just for his craft's deviation from its natural calling (to factually report on what is happening in the world), but the impact this could have on our nation long-term. After describing at length his journalistic background (4th generation journalist!), and exploring how we got to the point where journalists have gone from observer/reporters to cheerleaders, he drops this nugget.

But nothing, nothing I've seen has matched the media bias on display in the current presidential campaign.

Republicans are justifiably foaming at the mouth over the sheer one-sidedness of the press coverage of the two candidates and their running mates. But in the last few days, even Democrats, who have been gloating over the pass -- no, make that shameless support -- they've gotten from the press, are starting to get uncomfortable as they realize that no one wins in the long run when we don't have a free and fair press.

And then, the coup de grace.

[W]hat I object to (and I think most other Americans do as well) is the lack of equivalent hardball coverage of the other side -- or worse, actively serving as attack dogs for the presidential ticket of Sens. Barack Obama, D-Ill., and Joe Biden, D-Del.

If the current polls are correct, we are about to elect as president of the United States a man who is essentially a cipher, who has left almost no paper trail, seems to have few friends (that at least will talk) and has entire years missing out of his biography.

That isn't Sen. Obama's fault: His job is to put his best face forward. No, it is the traditional media's fault, for it alone (unlike the alternative media) has had the resources to cover this story properly, and has systematically refused to do so.

And that, ladies and gentlemen, is the whole issue, summed up, rung up, and tied with a bow. The BM has systematically refused to cover Barack Obama. They've been happy to fawn over him with sycophantic exuberance. They've been happy to serve as his propagandists. But they haven't offered so much as a peep about the multitude of peripheral issues surrounding Obama that might serve to indicate what kind of person he is and what kind of president he might be.

His latest little hissy fit, throwing reporters from the Washington Times, Dallas Morning News, and New York Post off of his campaign jet because their papers have endorsed John McCain, has completely disappeared from view already -- and it just happened on Friday! Don't say I'm exaggerating! I checked AP National, AP Washington, Reuters Politics, and UPI, and there was squadoosh, nada, nil. I don't know what's on TV right now, since I'm at work, so, for all I know, the airwaves could be all abuzz about it. But my experience is that where the print media goes, there also goes the TV coverage.

"So what", you say? "So the press is in the tank for BHO. Does that REALLY hurt anything?" Uh......YEAH! Without a free press serving as a watchdog, an ambitious politician like Obama can really cause some major damage to this country, damage from which we may never recover.

The BM should be ashamed of themselves. That is, if shame is an emotion they're still capable of.