LA Times and Barack Obama: Still Hot and Heavy

The steamy love affair between the Los Angeles Times and Barack Obama shows no signs of letting up. The archives at the Times will show that yesterday's big announcement by Obama was reported today with 1,215 words on page A17 (here, Sunday, February 11, 2007). In truth, there was actually more than this. There was also a 16-square-inch, full-color photo of Obama prominently displayed on the front page (see the image here). Barack is shown waving happily in front of a large backdrop of the American flag. (By the way, nowhere does the word "liberal" appear anywhere in the article!)

In addition, yesterday (Saturday, February 10, 2007), the Times published two photos and 1000+ words* in anticipation of Obama's announcement with an article called "Would Obama be 'black president'?" (page A12, see the image here) Note that the article next to it on Giuliani only has a puny 2.2-square-inch b&w photo of Rudy.

Meanwhile, on Tuesday (February 6, 2007), after Giuliani filed a statement of candidacy and announced "I'm in this to win," the Times buried the news to the "In Brief" section with a miniscule 114 words on the bottom half of page A15 (here). Although the Times has published a number of articles this past week on Giuliani's travels, it has not nearly risen to the level of the fawning and glowing coverage given to Obama.

Continuing disparate treatment? Of course. We have reported previously on the LA Times-Obama love affair here, here, here, and here).

(* Although the article itself is on the Times web site (here, with video and photos), I have not yet seen it seen listed in the archives.)