The News is not Unbiased

I don't watch all of the news on television much anymore, mainly because I am not around at the right time to sit down and devote 30 minutes to it. However, I usually catch the top stories on the local or national news almost every day. I find it absolutely amazing how much coverage Barak Obama is getting at the moment. He seems to be the focus of at least one segment in almost any newscast and is all over the magazine rack.

This article by Glenn Beck captures some of my thoughts on the issue.

According to the Tyndall Report, a service that monitors the three network
news broadcasts, ABC, NBC, and CBS have spent a total of 114 of their national
airtime minutes covering Obama since June. They've spent 48 minutes on his
Republican rival, Sen. John McCain.

The disparity between the amount of coverage each is receiving is quite ridiculous and Beck proposes a possible reason for it:

We've become a country that continually chooses the sizzle over the steak.
McCain may not get my vote, but he gets my admiration for at least offering
some substance and new ideas when he speaks. Obama, meanwhile, is like the
rock star who's realized that he can just scream unintelligible words into
the microphone between songs, and the entire stadium will still scream. When
your fans already love you, there's no reason to risk it by offering
anything that might be controversial. Remember the Dixie Chicks?

As candidates, Barack Obama and John McCain are ironically a lot like
the way the media treats them: Obama is the glitzy magazine cover that screams
for people to buy the issue, and McCain is the fact-filled article buried inside
that makes you glad you did.

I don't think it is too hard to figure out that Obama is a more polished speaker and has amazing presentation skills on stage. Given the fact that our current President can hardly get through a sentence without butchering a word or stumbling through a phrase, it is understandable that people are attracted to such an orator. It's not necessarily that McCain cannot provide a decent speech in front of people, it's just that he isn't cool and he doesn't seem to attempt to be that way.

Obama is younger, more polished and black.

McCain is older, less refined and white.

It's a pretty interesting election this time around, as two men with so many differences also seem to share quite a few policy ideas in common. I believe that the Democrats have the race to lose and that the Republicans have to hope for a major gaffe or twist in the race to help them gain whatever ground they can. McCain's stance on the war and how he goes about talking about it doesn't help him either way.

Meanwhile Barak Obama will continue to travel the world and the country and the media will make sure they keep his face plastered all over the place.