Network Morning Shows Ignore Federal Prison Inmate's Strong Showing Against Obama in W.Va. Primary

If you had any doubts that the liberal media are doing their level best this year to shield the public from embarrassing news developments pertaining to President Obama, you need look no further than the strange tale of federal prison inmate #11593-051, Keith Judd, who gave President Obama a run for his money in yesterday's West Virginia Democratic presidential primary.

The quadrennial presidential vanity candidate who is serving out a 17-year sentence for extortion garnered more than 40 percent of the state's primary votes, well above the 15 percent threshold to secure at least one delegate at the national convention in Charlotte this summer. Keep in mind that West Virginia's primary is closed, meaning this is not a matter of Republican voters casting mischief votes to embarrass the president.  So how did the broadcast network mornings shows -- NBC's Today, ABC's Good Morning America, and CBS This Morning -- deal with what at the very least is a head-turning watercooler story? They didn't. All three networks ignored the story.

Judd "received more votes than the president in 10 out of 55 counties," CNN's Soledad O'Brien noted at 7:30 a.m. on CNN's Starting Point program.  Even so, O'Brien tossed the development out there for very brief consideration by her panel, failing to wonder if this is a bad omen for Obama's chances to make up lost support by working-class white Democrats crucial to any Democratic president's reelection.

True, President Obama failed to win West Virginia in 2008 and is unlikely to do so this year, but still, getting a thumbs down from a full 40 percent of the state's Democratic voters is a huge embarrassment. It's hard to imagine the media letting President George W. Bush live down such a thing if it happened to him in 2004 in a rural blue state like say Vermont or Maine.

To her credit, Danielle Nottingham of the CBS Morning News program, which airs at 4 a.m., did cover the story of Judd's surprising showing, but that's a story that only early-riser news junkies would tune into.

"West Virginia's coal industry opposes the president's environmental policies, and the state's Democratic senator and governor haven't said if they'll support the president," Nottingham noted.

Of course I'm sure Democrats who voted against Obama weren't doing so out of disdain for the environment but out of concern about Obama's record on jobs and the economy.