Good Morning America's Jake Tapper on Sunday actually raised the issue of media bias, highlighting that Mitt Romney operatives "generally think that the media is in the tank for President Obama." [See video below. MP3 audio here.] Some of Tapper's colleagues on ABC have given Republicans good reason to believe this.
The journalist was responding to weekend GMA anchor Dan Harris's question about whether the "stage may now be set for an Obama comeback narrative." Tapper replied, "absolutely" and added, "So, yes, they [Team Romney] think that, without question, the media is ready to write the Obama comeback story."
On October 4, ABC World News anchor Diane Sawyer spent four minutes fretting about the President's poor debate performance. She allowed a mere 20 seconds on the growing Libya scandal.
Short of another terrible debate performance by the President, Americans should probably prepare for the Obama comeback narrative to quickly begin.
A transcript of the October 14 Good Morning America segment, which aired at 8:10am EDT, follows:
DAN HARRIS: And for much more on Tuesday's debate, let's bring in ABC's chief White House correspondent Jake Tapper who is in Washington filling in for George Stephanopoulos. Hey, Jake. Good morning.
DAN HARRIS: Never get the title wrong.
TAPPER: I appreciate the promotion.
HARRIS: Okay. You know, if it was up to me, you would be president itself. Let me ask you about last night on Saturday Night Live. They were openly mocking Vice President Joe Biden's toothy performance in the debate a couple days ago, showing him laughing at inappropriate moments. Now, I imagine that President Obama is not going to take a tack this aggressive, but is he going to ramp it up from his last debate and do you think he'll go for the 47 percent comment?
TAPPER: I think so. Absolutely right. I mean, they are obviously very different guys, President Obama and Vice President Biden and their styles are very different. I do think that you will see President Obama much more aggressive. He'll talk about the 47 percent comments that Mitt Romney made in that secret video tape. He seemed to, in a radio interview on Friday, he seemed to blame the fact that that didn't come up in the debate on the media. I guess that was a suggestion that Jim Lehrer should have brought it up. But, in any case, I think without question, President Obama will be more aggressive.
HARRIS: Do you think there's any concern in the Romney camp that the stage may now be set for an Obama comeback narrative?
TAPPER: Absolutely. They are very sensitive to that. They generally think that the media is in the tank for President Obama anyway. You have heard Paul Ryan and other members of the Romney/Ryan team make that suggestion. So, yes, they think that, without question, the media is ready to write the Obama comeback story and it's Romney's proposition that he's going to try to stand in the way of that by being just as aggressive on Tuesday as he was in the last debate.
HARRIS: And how much concern are you hearing from both camps about the fine line they have to walk in terms of attacking while in this pretty delicate town hall-style format where regular voters don't often like that kind of vitriol?
TAPPER: It's a good question because, the bottom line is, when you attack people-- if I were to attack you right now, your negative ratings would go up. People watching the show would think less of you based on what I said. But also, mine would, too, because people would think less of me for attacking. So, that's the delicate dance the candidates have to do. And I think the town hall makes that a challenge for both Romney and Obama there.
