December 04, 2008
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July 18, 2008

If a Network Anchor falls in the forest and no one hears him, is he still biased?

Ethel C. Fenig
Now for a modern  twist on the philosophical puzzle questioning if a tree falls in the forest but no one hears it does the tree still make a sound? 

If a presidential candidate takes a trip but the MSM ignore it did the trip occur?  If a presidential candidate makes a mistake but the MSM ignores it did said candidate make a mistake?   Last month John McCain, the Republican presidential nominee, traveled to the Mideast.  Next week Barack Obama, the Democratic presidential nominee, is planning to visit there.   

But the similarity ends there.  For instance, as Howard Kurtz in the Washington Post noted
The three network anchors will travel to Europe and the Middle East next week for Barack Obama's trip, adding their high-wattage spotlight to what is already shaping up as a major media extravaganza.

Lured by an offer of interviews with the Democratic presidential candidate, Brian Williams, Charlie Gibson and Katie Couric will make the overseas trek, meaning that the NBC, ABC and CBS evening newscasts will originate from stops along the route and undoubtedly give it big play.

And which major--or minor--news anchors joined McCain's trip?

John McCain has taken three foreign trips in the past four months, all unaccompanied by a single network anchor.

And that little known insight should demolish the self serving MSM myth that they are politically neutral, just reporting the news even handedly.  However apparently the McCain hand was cut off. 

McCain's trip received only four full-length stories during the combined ABC, CBS, and NBC evening news program coverage. Three of those stories were on NBC's "Nightly News," one of which focused on McCain's mistaken comment about Iran funding Al Qaeda in Iraq. ABC's "World News" did only one full-length story on McCain's Iraq trip, which mentioned the gaffe. The CBS "Evening News" was by far the worst, devoting only 31 words, a grand total of 10 seconds, to the Republican nominee's Iraq visit during the entire week of evening news coverage.

Will Obama's trip receive the same coverage as McCain's?  Will the anchors jeopardize their access to Obama by reporting an Obama gaffe or flip flop should it happen?  Would they even recognize such a thing? 

The deafening silence loudly and clearly answers the question. 

Posted at 09:27 AM | Email | |

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