Media Bias Caused by Campaign Bias?

Coming off my entry on double standards, I will add this new story to the mix. The Obama-Biden campaign has recently cut off all media contact with an Orlando network, because they asked him difficult questions. Here is the news story. The interview was actually fair questions, focusing on the two major statements that the campaign has made in the past weeks -- The "Spreading the wealth around" comment and the "Mark my words" warning. It also asked about ACORN (which Biden lied about). Below is the interview that caused their campaign to cut off communications simply because they did not like the very good questions that they asked.



Now, I generally try to give the media the benefit of the doubt, not denouncing them for every little thing. However, as this election has progressed, it has become clear who many in the media are pulling for. From The View, which asked Obama the hard-hitting question "Are you related to Brad Pitt?" to the New York Times that says a deep connection to William Ayers is a "distraction," while running front page stories on both Palin's wardrobe budget and Cindy McCain's previous legal drug addiction (also while ignoring Obama's admitted drug use). Responsible journalists should be willing to ask these tough questions, despite the fact that their paper or studio endorses one candidate or the other. As the Obama press release stated: "There's nothing wrong with tough questions, but reporters have the very important job of sharing the truth with the public." These questions were using the words of the candidates themselves (and the Marx quotation was fair, because it is simply another characterization of "Spreading the Wealth Around").

They were giving Biden the opportunity to explain himself and his running mate, because these are the statements that are on the tip of the tongue for the other side. How did Biden react? He asked whether the questions were "jokes," then the campaign shunned the news network. Let's see, is there another news network that this campaign has shunned in the past... oh yeah, how about Fox News Channel. Some of the top news anchors in the business are on that network (Greta Van Susteren, Brit Hume, and Bret Baier) and this campaign, along with the rest of the Democratic Party, shunned the primary debate that was hosted by this network (with no provocation, except that of moveon.org) and Obama has only granted one interview on this network -- to O'Reilly, and simply because regardless of what is said during the interview, O'Reilly (who has huge ratings for some reason) backs off criticism for the most part afterward. Why is this? Well, it seems clear now that tough questions will be asked and the campaign does not agree that they should be "vetted" by a media that asks questions which they do not like, nor to which they have already prepared talking point answers. But with this recent development, it seems to be the clear message that if a news network wants to have an interview, they will not ask tough questions. I think McCain should make this a campaign point, and take at least 3 more interviews with them in the next 10 days, stating that he's "not afraid of tough questions."

UPDATE: Here's another one...