People inside our office (Rich Noyes) and outside (Ramesh Ponnuru at NRO) laughed at the thought that Hillary Clinton’s political position has descended to such a desperate valley that George McGovern -- the ultraliberal 1972 nominee that lost 49 states in a landslide to Richard Nixon -- was telling Hillary Clinton she was a loser. But Thursday morning’s network TV accounts carried none of that sly humor (the appeal of which is apparently limited to conservatives). They cast it with more pathos, that working for McGovern (in Texas) was Hillary’s first campaign job:

ABC’s Jake Tapper on her delegate deficit: "A narrow but probably insurmountable chasm, causing high profile supporters like former South Dakota Senator George McGovern, whose 1972 political campaign was Clinton's first political job, to jump ship."

NBC’s Andrea Mitchell had the violin out: "But even some of the faithful are wavering. Leading Senator Dianne Feinstein, a prominent superdelegate says she wants Clinton to explain what the rationale is for continuing. And former presidential candidate George McGovern, for whom Bill and Hillary Clinton worked in 1972, endorsed Barack Obama, calling on Clinton to quit the race."

CBS’s Jim Axelrod was simpler: "For now at least she's ignoring the calls of top Democrats like George McGovern to leave the race."

This is one way the liberal media suggests it's sympathetic to Democrats, the way it treats every recent Democratic nominee who was thumped, from McGovern to Mondale to Dukakis to Gore to Kerry, as statesmen and the unfortunate victims of a savage, dishonest Republican machine, at least when they write or speak in public forums.

—Tim Graham is Director of Media Analysis at the Media Research Center