The Media

The WaPo's ombudsman, which comes from the Latin for 'person of ombuds', notices that political coverage has been unbalanced:

Democrat Barack Obama has had about a 3 to 1 advantage over Republican John McCain in Post Page 1 stories since Obama became his party's presumptive nominee June 4. Obama has generated a lot of news by being the first African American nominee, and he is less well known than McCain -- and therefore there's more to report on. But the disparity is so wide that it doesn't look good.

In overall political stories from June 4 to Friday, Obama dominated by 142 to 96. Obama has been featured in 35 stories on Page 1; McCain has been featured in 13, with three Page 1 references with photos to stories on inside pages....

Course, it's not just the WaPo, there is an Obama-gap all through the MSM. And maybe this has something to do with the MSM's plummeting credibility:

Based on past Pew polls, CNN touts itself as “the most trusted name in news,” but the percent who “believe all or most” of what CNN reports has fallen 12 points, to 30 percent, since Pew first posed the question in 1998. Yet, in a sign of how far the news media have fallen in the eyes of the public, that puts CNN at the top of the 12 television news outlets analyzed, as well as above all the newspapers and online sources. Believability for ABC News, CBS News and NBC News is down six points over the past ten years, to 24 percent for ABC and NBC, 22 percent for CBS, but that's still better than the mere 18 percent who “believe all or most” of what they read in the New York Times.

Personally, I'm not shaking in my boots. I think that, regarding Obama, the average news consumer is aware that he is being sold something. And how long can the MSM hide the fact that we're dealing with an empty suit here? How many stories about his pretty teeth and lean body can the public take? Oh, did we mention his smile?

The debates should help. And now it's clear why the empty O wants as few of them as possible. He's more of a Sunday Magazine guy - when it comes to substance, eh, not so much. His few convictions are unpalatable to the American public. And we've had our quota of winning smiles already.