The Free Ride

Paul Krugman is only the latest person to suggest that Barack Obama's gotten a free ride from the media.

What we do know is that Mr. Obama has never faced a serious Republican opponent — and that he has not yet faced the hostile media treatment doled out to every Democratic presidential candidate since 1988.

Yes, I know that both the Obama campaign and many reporters deny that he has received more favorable treatment than Hillary Clinton. But they’re kidding, right? Dana Milbank, the Washington Post national political reporter, told the truth back in December: “The press will savage her no matter what ... they really have the knives out for her, there’s no question about it ... Obama gets significantly better coverage.”

The WNYC show "On the Media" spent ten minutes discussing how the press was in love with Obama. It's the new riff on Obama - Hillary's said it, the talking heads are saying it, your uncle Bob in Cincinnati is saying it.

Except it's not true.

I took a few minutes to look at the media watchdog website Media Matters and found over 1200 incidents of media bias involving Obama. Samples:

The Politico called Obama a flip-flopper on the origin of his name, of all things; branded him a "rookie;" suggested he borrowed rhetoric from John Edwards; wrongly claimed that he changed his position on health care mandates and flip-flopped on whether President Bush has made us "safer;" diagnosed him with a "Jewish problem," and allowed a "Republican strategist working on the 2008 presidential race" to attack Obama anonymously.

On Nightline, Terry Moran reported, "The Obamas got the home [their house in Chicago] for $300,000 below the original asking price. To critics and even some friends, it looks like a sweetheart deal." This was his own comment - not a quote from anyone involved in the story.

On Glenn Beck's program, Jonah Goldberg compared Obama and Franklin Roosevelt to Hitler.

CNN had an online poll that asked if Barack Obama was patriotic enough to serve as president.

And how many news stories have been written about how he's all style and no substance, despite the wealth of information that's available about his positions and views?

And let's not even get into the cult slur. Let's not even get into Obama/Osama. Let's not even get into the "halfrican" slurs from the right-wing nutjobs. Let's not even get into using his middle name as often as possible for maximum scary effect. Let's not even get into the madrassa smear.

So STFU already about how Obama has gotten a free goddamn ride from the press.