TIME's Mark Halperin: 'Extreme Pro-Obama Media Bias A Disgusting Failure'

Politico:

Media bias was more intense in the 2008 election than in any other national campaign in recent history, Time magazine's Mark Halperin said Friday at the Politico/USC conference on the 2008 election.

"It's the most disgusting failure of people in our business since the Iraq war," Halperin said at a panel of media analysts. "It was extreme bias, extreme pro-Obama coverage."

Read the whole story: Politico

Comments

[helix711]

It would be an interesting (if it were possible) to see a study about the media's bias against talking about some of the McCain campaign's stupider antics.

Most of the McCain campaign's blunders I had to read about here or be linked to from here, while watching television I was often outraged by the stuff they explicitly WERE NOT covering and allowing to be glossed over by trained campaign spokespersons.

[VPN]

Have a look at this: http://mediamatters.org/issues_topics/search_results?qstring=Media+Bias+Study AND http://mediamatters.org/items/200810310012?f=s_search

[MossyOak]

Thank you, Mark, for finally giving me the willpower to stop my twenty year Time subscription addiction.

[IForgotMyName]

Yeah, he is totally right. The media should have praised McCain for suspending his campaign, selecting a foreign policy expert who can see Russia from her house, for loosing 3 debates without looking at Obama, for saying that the fundamentals of the economy are strong, for pretending that he could balance the budget in one term, for creating an atmosphere of hatred at his rallies, calling Obama a terrorist sympathizer, sexist, sex teacher for kids, spending 150,000 on clothes.

[Ramirez]

Palin never stated she could see Russia from her house. I stopped reading your post when I saw that.

[DaOne]

She may as well have.

[kasinca]

She said you could see Russia from Alaska. You cannot unless you go to an island in the Behring Strait. Palin was dumber than dirt.

[VPN]

Sounds like you missed the "SARCASM" label.

[politicscorner]

Mark Halperin, like most in the MSM, think that their access to and presence in the media equates wth the stature of their opinions. And that is what they spew out is their opinions, backed by little evidence and few facts.

As others have stated, "What does pro-Obama coverage mean?" To answer this and related questions, it will take a much more thorough examination of campaign coverage than the TV/big newspaper press are willing to undertake.

Whether or not one candidate got more or less favorable press is not really the point, because if anyone took the time to closely examine media coverage of the campaign (and that involves more than some number crunching like some groups have done), one would likely find that overall it sucked.

[dwilkerson]

Academic studies found that the media was more hostile to Obama than any Democrat in history. Even institutes that have been praised by the right for exposing 'liberal bias' found a right-wing bias in televised news in this election.

[poochytown]

At least they're biased in favor of a president-elect who is promising all sorts of good things instead of a sitting president who is actually doing all sorts of bad things, as they did with Bush after 9/11.

[steamboat]

The media has gone the way of 'Pravda' as far as one-sided coverage. All you guys who say it isn't so must be totally biased or brainwashed yourselves­........Ta­ke this 'its about change'. Yet, not one word from any of you guys about making Geithner the Treasury Secretary. A guy who believes in giving the big boys what they want, is pro-bailout, and has worked with Paulson for along time. Yet, not one word of hesitation from any of you.

[gobarackgo]

Other than MSNBC, I ididn't see the pro-Obama media bias Halperin is talking about. Fox was doing the same only exponentially more so for McCain. CNN and the three broadcast networks bent over backwards to make their coverage "fair" -- often glossing over McCain's gaffes to maintain the appearance of being fair and balanced. In my view, Obama was simply the superior candidate. If you watch Monday Night Football, when one team is clearly better than the other, the announcers call it as they see it. The same should be true in political coverage. How is that media bias?

[vippy]

Sadly, the media has not been reporting the truth since 2000. Otherwise we would not be in the
mess we are in. The banking disaster started last year but no word in the press. No one had the guts to touch that. The Pro-Obama outcry is that the media cannot control the many, many voices and
they feel they lost control. We as citizens cannot change a thing unless we get together and have
a Boston Tea Party but we sure can make our voices be heard by the sheer mass of ballots.

[Robocalledbynitwits]

Finally someone in the MSM willing to admit that they provided free campaign advertising to Obama disguised as "news".

[cyndeewi]

OMG, when will you folks quit? Do I hear anyone talking about Fox that bashed Obama 24-7. How about CNN? McCain really got a free pass and so did Palin. Please someone explan to me. Is it wrong to say some nice things about Obama?

It is over and Obama has won.

[dwilkerson]

Free campaign advertising? You mean like how the MSM played McCain's celebrity ads on a loop for free all summer? You guys need to crawl out of that bubble if you ever want to win another election.

[RJII]

Obama ran a great campaign. Hate the game, not the player.

[iamheasyouare]

I would say that the media reported a positive-spin image of Obama, because there was so much good about the man to discuss. And I would say his opponents, both during the primaries and during the Presidential race, were given more than a fair airing of their viewpoints. If anything, factually unfair and distorted portrayals of Obama were given a certain credence just by their ad nauseum reportage.

[trinidadgirl]

True dat! And Mark halperin is now the 'connoisseur' on pro and con media. PLEEZE!
He lost the plot long ago when he was stating the opposite of what was happening. re MC Cain won the week re the economy. Watch Snark'y Mark's writings. As soon as we come out against him, he will suddenly switch to nice. Bi-polar in his writings.
Poor mark...he still can't get over it .

[raymurt]

From the nation that's looking forward to recovering from "extreme Bush fatigue"..­.

[tchristin]

I must be living in a parallel universe to this man. I saw no media bias toward or against Obama. In some ways I felt he was subjected to scrutiny that no other candidate endured, democrat or republican. We don't even know where Hillary Clinton or John McCain goes to church (let alone had their Pastor's life of sermons studied in detail, or who might be a controversial figure that they have served on boards, committees with. However, if it seemed that way perhaps it was merely the reporting of the overwhelming affection the American people have for Barack Obama. No other candidate was able to attract the adoring crowds and hasn't done so in my life time. That just happens to be the news, whether this man likes it or not.

[trinidadgirl]

I still cannot come to terms with this cliche of pro Obama.....­..who was in the media's eyes he was.this, that, the other, more of this, that, the other, etc etc... Talk about given a hard time!.
Maybe it is me, but if one campaign was doing stuff and foolishness that deserved media attention and the other was just doing stuff..wha­t are we supposed to do? Huh?

You guys, no, fellahs are too jokey for words. Making accusations and articles because you have to write something. I will go one step further and say that YOU whiney Mark Halperin get too much media attention, with your wordage...­.but it is time for you to offer up something and Do something productively to get some attention. Tired of the constant chatter Mark. Do something and then talk..Unti­l then you have lost credibility!

[jdw1981]

The media has only been pro-Obama since it became clear that he was going to destroy McCain, Palin and the GOP in the election. Prior to that, we had endless discussions of "no flag pin", William Ayers, Reverend Wright, arugula (there was actually a photo of arugula featured as a COVER STORY on Newsweek). Then, once people like Halperin, Kristol and others cut from the same mold discovered that the American people didn't care about any of the non-issues they had created to smear Obama, they decided that the media was to blame for being "pro-Obama" all along.

Guess what, Time and Newsweek? Your sales are falling and will continue to fall. In a couple of years the only place your magazines will be seen, if they exist at all, are in doctors' offices.

[WoodyCPM]

I look forward to the day that TIME and NEWSWEEK go out of business. They publish such mindless, self-serving drivel.