A few days ago I wrote a post congratulating MSNBC’s Dan Abrams for his comment about (in his opinion) the US media having a less than objective view of the Clinton-Obama race for the democratic nomination.
After this weekend, I have to take the media to task for their coverage of the Republican side where John McCain seems to be the media’s candidate of choice. You probably didn’t hear but there was a caucus in Maine this weekend, a caucus won by Mitt Romney.
Given the reports that many conservatives within the Republican Party are not at all happy that McCain is in the lead for the presidential nomination (look at the comments from high-profile commentators like Rush Limbaugh and Ann Coulter), and that Maine is a fairly moderate state (presumably then fertile McCain territory), you would think that a Romney victory would be big news. Or at least news. But aside from a few small wire service stories, Romney’s victory went unnoticed.
I’m not saying that Romney’s win in the Maine caucus is a sign of softness in McCain’s support, or a bell-weather of conservatives rallying around Romney as the anti-McCain candidate, but maybe they are. At least you would think it would be a topic of discussion on the endless hours of political analysis on cable and the internet.
But that would interfere with the narrative that McCain will be the Republican nominee. I’ll repeat my request from the Abrams post – its fine to support a candidate, but either keep your objectivity or state your position up front so people can then judge your comments for themselves knowing all the facts. Maybe the race in November will be Obama-McCain, fine, but the media shouldn’t play a role in creating that ticket.
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