MRC/NB's Bozell Comments on Dan Rather's Accurate Citing of Media Bias

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Spreading the Word

As we reported earlier, former CBS news anchor Dan Rather noted on today's Morning Joe on MSNBC that the traditional media is largely ignoring Democratic Senator and Vice Presidential candidate Joe Biden's alarming comment on Sunday:  "... (M)ark my words, within the next, first six months of this administration if we win, you're gonna face a major international challenge, because they are going to want to test him...." 

Rather pointed out "... (C)ertainly if Sarah Palin had said this it would be above the fold in most newspapers today... (I)f Sarah Palin had said this, the newspapers would have jumped all over it and so would have the major television outlets."

Morning Joe co-host Mika Brzezinski agreed with Rather's assessment, saying "I'm seeing spotty media coverage."

Spotty is an understatement.

Last night, ABC's World News failed to report Biden's assertion.  Rather's old network CBS barely mentioned it on his old show, the Evening News, as a part of a "McCain attacks Obama campaign" story.  NBC's Nightly News did, but omitted the most volatile portion of his statement, "(M)ark my words, within the next, first six months of this administration if we win, you're gonna face a major international challenge...."

Not only was it not above the fold in the New York Times, it was on Page A18 in paragraph eleven of a story headlined "Obama Briefly Leaving Trail to See Ill Grandmother."  The Washington Post made brief mention of it on Page A4.

MRC President and Newsbusters.org Publisher L. Brent Bozell, III issued the following statement in response:

"The liberal media's silence on Sen. Biden's guarantee of a ‘major international challenge' in the ‘first six months' of an Obama administration is a crystal clear example of their horrendous coverage throughout the 2008 Presidential campaign.

"It's media bias so bad, even Dan Rather can see it.  A Vice Presidential candidate tells us to ‘mark his words' that some enormous global crisis will occur on their watch, and the liberal media either intentionally omit it, skew their reporting to minimize it or bury it deep in the inner recesses of their newspapers.

"Rather is right again about Gov. Palin.  The liberal media have gone into overdrive since Day One to smear her as a dolt, a ‘Caribou Barbie', yet here we have perpetual gaffe machine Sen. Biden promising us an international catastrophe as a part of their Administration's transition effort and the press reports nothing."