Who is Fair and Balanced?

Surprise, surprise, surprise!

John McCain supporters who believe they haven't gotten a fair shake from the media during the Republican's candidacy against Barack Obama have a new study to point to. Comments made by sources, voters, reporters and anchors that aired on ABC, CBS and NBC evening newscasts over the past two months reflected positively on Obama in 65 percent of cases, compared to 31 percent of cases with regards to McCain, according to the Center for Media and Public Affairs.

ABC's "World News" had more balance than NBC's "Nightly News" or the "CBS Evening News," the group said.

Who would have ever guessed it? Just like one of those studies that determines rich people will be hurt less by a bad economy, we have a new study on the media that reveals the obvious.

Meanwhile, the first half of Fox News Channel's "Special Report" with Brit Hume showed more balance than any of the network broadcasters, although it was dominated by negative evaluations of both campaigns. The center didn't evaluate programs on CNN or MSNBC.

"For whatever reason, the media are portraying Barack Obama as a better choice for president than John McCain," said Robert Lichter, a George Mason University professor and head of the center. "If you watch the evening news, you'd think you should vote for Obama."

Aha! Fox is the fair and balanced network!

ABC recorded 57 percent favorable comments toward the Democrats, and 42 percent positive for the Republicans. NBC had 56 percent positive for the Democrats, 16 percent for the Republicans. CBS had 73 percent positive (Obama), versus 31 percent (McCain).

Hume's telecast had 39 percent favorable comments for McCain and 28 percent positive for the Democratic ticket.

It was the second study in two weeks to remark upon negative coverage for the McCain-Palin ticket. The Project for Excellence in Journalism concluded last week that McCain's coverage has been overwhelmingly negative since the conventions ended, while Obama's has been more mixed.

Alphabet Lies

Why did Charlie Gibson kick off the national news last night with a story that included this phrase when you can see in the next post down that the most credible polls, the daily trackers, show the race to be down in the 2 to 5 point range?

"And while Barack Obama continues to hold double digit leads in most national polls..."

This blatant media deception pisses me off. On the Real Clear Politics collection of polls, the older 6 show Barack leading by an average of 8.33. The 7 current ones (dated yesterday) show an Obama lead of 5.14. Why the lies?

Palin Abuse

Watching Charlie Gibson squeeze answers out of Sarah Palin has got me wondering - why is he doing this, why is he getting away with it, would he do this to one of the other candidates?

Mark Penn: I think here the media is on very dangerous ground. I think that when you see them going through every single expense report that Governor Palin ever filed, if they don't do that for all four of the candidates, they're on very dangerous ground. I think the media so far has been the biggest loser in this race. And they continue to have growing credibility problems.

Is it because she's not confident enough, yet, to simply say - "Enough on this topic, Charlie. Asked and answered - let's move on."

Mark Penn: And I think that that's a real problem growing out of this election. The media now, all of the media — not just Fox News, that was perceived as highly partisan — but all of the media is now being viewed as partisan in one way or another. And that is an unfortunate development.

Or is it because he feels so superior to her, so much the dad explaining to the teenager why she has to more studying, that he can't help himself?

CBSNews.com: So you think the media is being uniquely tough on Palin now?

Mark Penn: Well, I think that the media is doing the kinds of stories on Palin that they're not doing on the other candidates. And that's going to subject them to people concluding that they're giving her a tougher time. Now, the media defense would be, "Yeah, we looked at these other candidates who have been in public life at an earlier time."

Or maybe he's just so pissed at her for not having gone to Harvard - how demeaning for old Charlie to have to apply his 25 years of experience on a beginner.

Whatever the cause of Charlie's, and the rest of the mainstream media's, disdain for Sarah and worship of Barack, they are damaging their candidate's chances of winning, but worse, they're ravaging the nation's trust in journalism.

Mark Penn: What happened here very clearly is that the controversy over Palin led to 37 million Americans tuning into a vice-presidential speech, something that is unprecedented, because they wanted to see for themselves. This is an election in which the voters are going to decide for themselves. The media has lost credibility with them.

23 Points

Catholic voters are good predictors of national elections, says George Stephanopoulos on the news tonight. He's right.

“The Catholic vote has been the classic swing vote in American presidential politics. In the last nine Presidential elections, the candidate who won the Catholic vote has won the popular vote nationwide.

The latest ABC News poll shows McCain/Palin leading by 23 points, 59% to 36%, reports George. The story was very different two weeks ago.

Catholic voters, who make up 25% of the American electorate, are currently splitting their vote for president between Barack Obama and John McCain, but are united in their aversion to mixing religion and politics.

What's the difference? Sarah Palin? Probably. ABC is reporting again tonight on the 20 point swing amongst women, post convention. Perhaps that's where the big Catholic move is coming from.

“White women have moved from 50-42 percent in Obama’s favor before the conventions to 53-41 percent for McCain now, a 20-point shift in the margin that’s one of the single biggest post-convention changes in voter preferences,” writes ABC’s political analyst Gary Langer. “The other, also to McCain’s advantage, is in the battleground Midwest, where he’s moved from a 19-point deficit to a 7-point edge.”

Palin Power

The new ABC News/Washington Post poll only shows McCain with a 2% lead among likely voters (joining Gallup, Rasmussen and USA Today polls in putting McCain out in front), but the news is dramatic when you look inside the poll.

McCain's gains stem from his improved standing against Obama on the election's core issues and a significant narrowing of the newly minted Democratic nominee's advantage as the candidate better suited to shake up Washington.

Who is the "change" candidate now?

In previous surveys, white women gave Obama a clear edge on bringing change; now they divide 47 percent for McCain, 44 percent for Obama... Only four in 10 voters in the new poll said Obama has done enough to explain the "change" he promises; that's down six points from before his convention.

The shift among white women is astounding!

White women have moved from 50-42 percent in Obama's favor before the conventions to 53-41 percent for McCain now, a 20-point shift in the margin that's one of the single biggest post-convention changes in voter preferences.

On the issues, voters are much more comfortable with John McCain than with Barack.

...on the dominant issue of the election, the economy, McCain has whittled Obama's advantage to a mere five points, the smallest it's been this year. McCain has a 17-point lead on which candidate can best handle an unexpected crisis and, for the first time, a double-digit advantage as the one more trusted on international affairs. McCain also has a 10-point lead on dealing with the war in Iraq, an issue that voters had been divided on since the outset of the campaign.

Palin Goes with Gibson

Charlie Gibson goes first.

Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin has agreed to sit down with ABC's Charles Gibson later this week for her first television interview since John McCain chose her as his running mate more than a week ago.

Gibson is a good way to roll out Palin. He's push her, but not too hard. She'll have room to reach past him, right into America's living rooms.

Palin will sit down for multiple interviews with Gibson in Alaska over two days, most likely Thursday and Friday, said McCain adviser Mark Salter.

The interview with Palin was confirmed Friday, ABC News spokesman Jeffrey Schneider said.

The first-term Alaska governor has given speeches alongside McCain since becoming his surprise pick on Aug. 29. But Democrats have already begun to question why Palin has not been put before reporters to answer questions.

McCain, who appeared on CBS' "Face the Nation" Sunday, said he expected Palin to start doing interviews "in the next few days."

Barack's Oil Desperation

Is Barack soft? Here's his reason why drilling for oil - a national security imperative to people who are paying attention to reality - is unnecessary.

"There are things that you can do individually though to save energy," Sen. Barack Obama, D-Illinois, said. "Making sure your tires are properly inflated, simple thing, but we could save all the oil that they're talking about getting off drilling, if everybody was just inflating their tires and getting regular tune-ups. You could actually save just as much."

Jake Tapper at ABC, and others, provide calculations to demonstrate why Barack's assertion is incorrect, but the real point is that it's not an either/or situation. Everyone should take care of their cars to maximize efficiency, but we must face up to urgent need to get off of foreign oil, and all reasonable measures should be pursued to achieve that end.

Bad News for Barack

For those who question what Barack stands for, one need look no further than his esteemed collection of supporters. Let's add a new one to the list, which already includes:

Al Gore, Jimmy Carter, Fidel Castro, Robert Reich, Ted Kennedy, Tom Hanks, NARAL, John Edwards, Jane Fonda, The Teamsters and Steel Workers unions, Moveon.org, John Kerry, Michael Moore, Oprah Winfrey, George Clooney, Reggae Singer Cocoa Tea, and Hamas political adviser Ahmed Yousef, just to name a few.

Now, we can happily announce the addition of Phil Spector - the poster boy for celebrity mental illness.

Today The Times' eagle-eyed Harriet Ryan spotted Phil Spector, the famous rock entrepreneur and infamous date, showing up for a court hearing in Los Angeles wearing a very obvious "Barack Obama Rocks" pin.