One reason Barack Obama selected Joe Biden as his running mate is that Obama's advisers  “think the press loves Biden and so the press will sort of go easy on him on the past gaffes and when he's contradicted Obama,” CNN's Jessica Yellin revealed minutes before midnight Friday night, just an hour ahead of CNN and other media outlets reporting Joe Biden was, indeed, Barack Obama's pick.

Speaking by phone with anchor John King, Yellin recounted that “if it is Joe Biden” what “one of Barack Obama's close advisers” who “was a strong advocate of Biden” told her were the arguments in his favor, ending with how the media “loves” him:

[T]he reasons they think Biden would be strong is because, one, he's a great attack dog, in the view of this person. He's beloved in Pennsylvania where they think that they need to do well, and this advisor thinks that Biden can truly help to deliver that state. And in their view, they think the press loves Biden and so the press will sort of go easy on him on the past gaffes and when he's contradicted Obama. I'm not so sure on that last point, but that is at least one view close to the Obama camp.

“I'm not so sure on that last point” about how the media will “go easy on him.” Well, let's read and watch over the next two months and see who is closer to accurate: the Obama adviser or Yellin.

—Brent Baker is Vice President for Research and Publications at the Media Research Center