One of the finest examples of media bias this campaign season occurred last Sunday when Democrat vice presidential candidate Joe Biden guaranteed an international crisis would befall our nation in six months if Obama is in the White House, and the American press almost completely ignored his warning.
To give you an idea of just how absurd the lack of coverage concerning this event was, the entire panel on Saturday's "Fox News Watch" agreed that this shows just how in the tank the press are for the junior senator from Illinois.
Even the left-leaning Kirsten Powers said "if there's any doubt there was a double standard in this race, it is completely laid to rest by this because there is no way that this can be ignored."
I couldn't agree more (h/t Johnny Dollar):
JON SCOTT, HOST: This week on FOX "News Watch," Joe Biden says some surprising things about his running mate. Did the media try to ignore them? [...]
On the panel this week, Jane Hall of the American University; syndicated columnist Cal Thomas; Jim Pinkerton, contributing editor and writer for the "American Conservative" magazine; and Kirsten Powers, "New York Post" columnist and FOX News analyst.I'm Jon Scott. FOX "News Watch" is on right now.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. JOE BIDEN, (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Mark my words, it will not be six months before the world tests Barack Obama like they did John Kennedy. The world is looking. We are about to elect a brilliant 47-year old president of the United States of American. Remember, I said it standing here, if you don't remember anything else I said. Watch, we're going to have an international crisis, a generated crisis, to test the mettle of this guy."
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SCOTT: That's vice presidential candidate Joe Biden speaking Sunday at a Democratic fund-raiser.
All right. You wrote a column about this, Kirsten. You were pretty tough on your fellow Democrat. Did they give him a pass on those remarks?
KIRSTEN POWERS, "NEW YORK POST" COLUMNIST & FOX NEWS ANALYST: Yes, I think they did. I think I was tougher on the media than Biden because we don't really know -- Biden hasn't actually given us any explanation of this. The media, if there's any doubt there was a double standard in this race, it is completely laid to rest by this because there is no way that this can be ignored. What he said, he goes into such detail, if you listen to the whole thing, read the entire transcript. It's not he's talking about John McCain or barrack Obama will be tested. He's talking specifically barrack Obama will be tested.
SCOTT: That seemed to be the Democratic Party spin after the remarks generated some attention. He was talking theoretically about whoever gets elected.
KIRSTEN: He did say Barack Obama has a steel spine and people will realize he can handle it. But that was after this lengthy exposition on how we're going to have some international incident.
CAL THOMAS, SYDICATED COLUMNIST: He went further. He tried to inoculate Obama and himself because he said, in the next sound bite, which was also ignored by the mainstream media, look, he's going to make decisions when we are threatened, and some of you will think they're wrong, but they're not wrong. Trust us anyway.
This is messy and a cult-like devotion and it's meant to insulate himself from any criticism of the media should he make wrong decisions.
SCOTT: I guess the scary part about it is that Biden does have access, as you pointed out in your column, to the same intelligence that George W. Bush does.
THOMAS: Yes. He probably came right out of a briefing. Of course, Biden can't hold anything in. The minute he knows something, it goes to the mouth and out to everybody.
SCOTT: Why didn't it get more coverage? Why didn't it get more coverage?
JANE HALL, AMERICAN UNIVERSITY: I think it really gets to the fact that people, as she said in her column, people have an opinion about Sarah Palin as they had an opinion about Dan Quayle. They think Biden -- they know Biden. He's been around. And it was shocking. And he also said you're not going to like the economy in a year. The guy -- it is -- you could psycho analyze it. You could say it was refreshing candor or you could say, my God, what does he believe about the man he's running with. Maybe there's some envy there. You can psycho analyze this.
Very little coverage of it. I think it does demonstrates not that they're in the tank for Obama, but that they think they know Biden and they've already forgiven him. So he will never get caught on this.
JIM PINKERTON, CONTRIBUTING EDITOR & COLUMNIST, "AMERICAN CONSERVATIVE": Let me get Jane's argument straight. People out there...
HALL: People, the media. Our media! Mea Culpa.
PINKERTON: Oh, let me clarify that. It's not there's a double standard. It's they like Biden and don't like Palin. I see.
HALL: I agree!
(CROSSTALK)
HALL: I'm agreeing with you!
PINKERTON: This might explain why it is that according to the Pew Center, the public, by a 70-9 ratio, think the press wants Obama to win. Why the Project for Excellence in Journalism shows that the negative coverage on McCain is four times the positive coverage. I think the pattern is emerging here.
SCOTT: Kirsten, what would have been the coverage if Palin had made those remarks?
POWERS: I can't even imagine. I really can't even imagine. I think it would be front page news.
THOMAS: No, they're focusing on her clothes.
POWERS: I think we would have heard the entire clip over and over again. The economy part isn't even being discussed. The whole thing was sort of jarring if you read it thinking I'm a Democrat, I'm voting for Barack Obama. I'm thinking what is he talking about and does he have information we don't know about.
SCOTT: Why is it the Democrats only tell the truth in fund-raisers when they think nobody's listening.
THOMAS: Let me pick up on Jim's point though because it's a very good one. The Pew Center report that showed huge numbers of the American people don't believe what they're getting from the media. Now, in any other industry, could you afford to disrespect your consumers whether you're selling hamburgers or gasoline or clothes? This is amazing and we see the numbers continue to decline, particularly at the broadcast networks and newspapers. And yet they continue to spill out this dribble even though the customers aren't buying it.
SCOTT: And wonder why subscriptions are dropping.
THOMAS: Exactly.
Liberal media bias? What liberal media bias?
