The top strategist for Mitt Romney's campaign told CNN that he doesn't think the media is "in the tank" for President Obama.
Stuart Stevens appeared on "Reliable Sources" Sunday to deliver his somewhat surprising opinion -- surprising because it does not quite square with the way his candidate seemed to approach the media during the campaign.
After all, Romney himself frequently spoke about how he thought the media was working against him. Among other things, he described the media as "liberals trying to beat the heck out of us"; said he was fighting an "uphill battle" with some in the press; and said that many in the media are "inclined to do the president's bidding." He even joked about a "vast, left wing conspiracy" against him in the media.
Moreover, Romney's advisers -- of which Stevens was the most important -- often bashed the media (while speaking about it to reporters, of course).
In the post-campaign environment, though, Stevens appeared to be singing a rather different tune.
"Do you believe today that much of the media is in the tank for Barack Obama?" host Howard Kurtz asked.
"It's not a yes or a no question," Stevens responded, before answering directly. "In the tank, I would say no. So, yes or no question? I would say no ... I think after that the election, you're going to have a lot tougher questions that are going to be asked because you're out of an election environment."
He also said he had "never been a media basher" and was "very sympathetic" to journalists, though he added that there was "every reason to believe" that most journalists were Democrats.
"Now, that's not to say that they can't be good journalists and that they can't be fair," he said.
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