Washington Post Biased for Obama

Don’t be too shocked but the Washington Post, one of the nations premier go to news organizations, might have been slightly biased for Barack Obama in this past election. According to their own Ombudsman, Deborah Howell, she researched the articles printed and the paper favored Obama more than McCain.

If that is what the Ombudsman or should it be Ombudswoman says then it must be true. I’ll get into it later why I think she is wrong but here is the piece over at the Washington Post…

An Obama Tilt in Campaign Coverage
By Deborah Howell
Sunday, November 9, 2008; Page B06

The Post provided a lot of good campaign coverage, but readers have been consistently critical of the lack of probing issues coverage and what they saw as a tilt toward Democrat Barack Obama. My surveys, which ended on Election Day, show that they are right on both counts.

My assistant, Jean Hwang, and I have been examining Post coverage since Nov. 11 of last year on issues, voters, fundraising, the candidates' backgrounds and horse-race stories on tactics, strategy and consultants. We also have looked at photos and Page 1 stories since Obama captured the nomination June 4.

The count was lopsided, with 1,295 horse-race stories and 594 issues stories. The Post was deficient in stories that reported more than the two candidates trading jabs; readers needed articles, going back to the primaries, comparing their positions with outside experts' views. There were no broad stories on energy or science policy, and there were few on religion issues. - Washington Post

Can I disagree with this so called Ombudswoman and just say that she obviously did not follow the damn election. Did she not see that John McCain ran his campaign based on the news cycle but managed to trip over his own two feet as negative spin after negative spin ended up as egg on his face. Apparently Deborah Howell, no relation to Thurston Howell III by the way, did not happen to see the Reverend Wright attack from McCain that was uniquely timed with the endorsement of Reverend John Hagee? For the record here, Wright did the “God damn America” speech and Hagee called all Catholics whores. I think that covers religion.

John McCain attacked Obama on his experience or lack there of and then picked Governor Sarah Palin as his Vice President who had no clue as to the den of fire breathing politics she was being drawn into. Of course the press did not have any new news on Joe Biden who has lived an open book life for more almost three decades. Ergo the press covered Sarah Palin. And if I were the editor of the post then I would already know what was already on file for Joe Biden and also know that nothing was on file for Governor Palin. Where would you send your world class reporting staff?

When the financial crash finally surfaced John McCain dove into the pool without seeing if there was even water in it. The same John McCain who suspended his campaign to work with both sides of the aisle in the Senate to pass the bailout plan that never met with even one Democrat. Is it Barack Obama’s problem that McCain inserted his own foot in his own mouth and all of the media reported on it including the Washington Post how his own party voted against the first bailout plan?

Is it a real story when John McCain had to defer to a staffer on how many houses he owns when Obama could answer the question by just saying “One.” For the record again, McCain has seven plus homes and a couple of condo’s but that wasn’t worth reporting on according to the WA PO Ombudswoman.

This article from Deborah Howell is a far reach to embrace the right side of the political perspective of the papers readership. That does not bother me as much as it shows that inside the Washington Post they can not see what great reporting on the issues actually were and still is. If the Post appeared that it was biased then it was because they were pointing out the never ending mistakes from the McCain for President campaign during the election. Something that has happened every single week since the nominating conventions. This was a political election and every great news organization tries its best to be unbiased in its reporting and yet you could not criticize the paper for reporting on the train wreck this was as an election for Republicans. No matter how many times they put the McCain train back on the tracks it kept derailing itself and that in itself is news to report on.

I’ll keep reading the Washington Post daily because I have trust in the facts reported no matter which side of politics it covers. Now if you want to talk about other news reporting houses that are extremely biased let me tell you about…

Papamoka