Where Liberty Dwells, there is my country

Barack Obama from Cox & Forkum

Rich Noyes of the Media Research Center documents how the ABC, CBS, and NBC helped Obama win the Democratic nomination. They continue to serve their role as arms of Obama’s campaign. Their “coverage” of Obama’s campaign is better described as one long campaign commercial. Where is federal oversight of these Networks?

On August 28, when the junior Senator from Illinois accepts his party’s nomination to be the next President of the United States, Barack Obama may wish to spend a few moments thanking network news reporters for making the whole night possible. Since the launch of Obama’s national political career at the Democratic convention four years ago, the Big Three broadcast networks have showered Obama with positive — even glowing — news coverage, protected the candidate from the attacks of his rivals, and shown little interest in investigating Obama’s past associations or exploring the controversies that could have threatened his campaign.

These are the key findings of an exhaustive analysis of ABC, CBS and NBC evening news coverage of Barack Obama — every story, every soundbite, every mention — through the end of the Democratic primaries in June. Media Research Center analysts examined every reference to Obama on the three evening broadcasts, and found a near-absence of the journalistic scrutiny and skepticism normally associated with coverage of national politicians. Indeed, much of the coverage — particularly prior to the formal start of Obama’s presidential campaign in early 2007 — bordered on giddy celebration of a rising political “rock star” rather than objective newsgathering.

But a little bit of good news:

That the national media have unfairly tipped the scales in Obama’s direction is a fact not lost on the public. The Pew Research Center surveyed about 1,000 adults in late May, and reported that “far more Americans believe that the press coverage has favored Barack Obama than think it has favored Hillary Clinton,” with even 35 percent of Democrats seeing “a pro-Obama bias.” A Rasmussen survey of 1,000 likely voters released July 21 discovered “49 percent of voters believe that in the general election, most reporters will try to help Obama with their coverage” while “just one voter in four (24%) believes that most reporters will try to offer unbiased coverage.”