After Attacks on Palin, Biden Given a Pass by Media for Not Holding Press Conferences

The CBS News blog "From the Road" suddenly realized that Joe Biden was not giving the media any access and that he hasn't held a press conference for well over a month. Even with this report, though, the media at large has been strangely quite on this disappearing act of Biden's, especially in light of the drubbing they handed out to Sarah Palin when she was not so forthcoming with the press as they'd have liked after her debut on the national stage.

Remember all the pained cries from the media that Palin was "hiding" from them? Remember how they agonized over her distance from them in the month following her addition to the McCain ticket? Yet, Biden is not only refusing any interaction with the press, he is, for the most part, not even taking any questions from voters during his campaign stops.

Still, the media seems unconcerned with scolding Biden as much as they did Palin.

We'll all remember how they howled about Palin, won't we? On September 21, for instance, the Washington Post complained that between Palin's debut on the national stage in August, 23 days went by without her granting "a single news conference with the national media." On September 7, ABC's Jake Tapper wondered when would Palin " subject herself to questions?" Even earlier on September 4, Andrew Romano of Newsweek's "Stumper" blog was all upset that Palin hadn't given the press what they wanted. And this is not to mention all the TV folks that wrung their hands over Palin's refusal to let them interview her.

It is true that even as far back as September 23, some media were noticing that Biden was slowly disappearing from press interaction. CNN noted the fact, though still insisting that it was not as bad as Palin's actions, naturally.

But, the media went crazy over what it perceived as Palin's penchant for ignoring them. As far as the press was concerned, it was the end of democracy as we knew it at the time. Yet, now we see Palin increasingly interacting with the press and voters while Biden retreats from the same and the press seem to have little to say about the dichotomy.

I guess the press realizes that the more Joe "gaffe machine" Biden opens his mouth the more trouble he causes for the Obama campaign and the media would rather Joe just shut the heck up!

But, what we really have is yet one more example of the media double standard that favors their messiah, Obama. Attack is all the have for McCain/Palin and support is all they have for Obama/that other guy.

(Photo credit: Reason Magazine)