kerry tops in media support -- no surprise here

In a report dated November 1, according to the Center for Media and Public Affairs "John Kerry is getting the most favorable network news coverage of any presidential candidate in the past quarter century. CMPA also reports that George W. Bush’s coverage is highly negative this year, but doesn’t approach the record for bad press held by Ronald Reagan"

Members of the liberal media were the most loyal part of John Kerry's base. The media provided cover for Kerry for months after the Swift Boat Vets started to criticize him. Even after the media could no longer ignore the Swift Vets, the resulting coverage was amazingly onesided; no liberal media outlet ever demanding that Kerry release his Navy records. Instead of responsibly investigating the claims of the Swift Vets, the media launched counterattacks on George Bush's national guard service. After this blew up and actually began to backfire (the Dan Rather forgery incident), ABC, spending large amounts of money, even went so far as to send correspondents to Vietnam to collect information favorable to Kerry. ABC never demanded that Kerry release his records.

When the Kerry campaign criticized the Bush record on the economy, the media responded by citiing all kinds of dire statistics. Amazingly, unemployment rates that were considered positive during the Clinton administration were considered to be signs of an impending depression in the Bush years.

Media coverage of Iraq seemed to also be tailored to support Kerry. Abuse at the Abu Ghraib prision, known to the media in January, was warmed up and presented as news months later. Each individual still picture pose was treated as a separate news story by no less than the Washington Post.