...with a little help from my friends

According to a recent Rasmussen poll, 49% of voters believe the media is trying to help Obama win.

Monday, July 21, 2008

The idea that reporters are trying to help Obama win in November has grown by five percentage points over the past month. The latest Rasmussen Reports telephone survey, taken just before the new controversy involving the New York Times erupted, found that 49% of voters believe most reporters will try to help the Democrat with their coverage, up from 44% a month ago.

What is this new controversy? In case you've been out of town lately, the New York Times Op-Ed page published an editorial on July 14 by Barak Obama entitled "My Plan for Iraq". It's a good read. Senator Obama explains his position on Iraq and what he plans to about the war. We'll leave out the fact that at the time he wrote this piece, he hadn't even been to Iraq in nearly 3 years.

Anyway, just one week after this piece was published, the NYT Op-Ed refused to publish a rebuttal from Senator John McCain, claiming his piece didn't offer any "new" information like Obama's piece did.

Know what? They are right. I guess when you're a junior U.S. senator, elected only two years ago, of which you have spent the last year and a half running for president, much of what you say IS actually "new". And I guess when you've been a U.S. senator for 26 years, much of what you say ISN'T "new."

However, publishing Obama's piece on Iraq while refusing to publish McCain's piece certainly does nothing to promote fair journalism. It's no wonder almost 50% of polled voters think that the media is favoring Obama over McCain.

Oh, and this shouldn't surprise you too much. The NYT Op-Ed editor, David Shipley, used to be the Special Assistant to the President and Senior Speechwriter in the Clinton Administration. Think he has a bit of a bias?

Here's a snippet of McCain's rebuttal that speaks volumes.

I am also dismayed that he never talks about winning the war—only of ending it. But if we don’t win the war, our enemies will. A triumph for the terrorists would be a disaster for us. That is something I will not allow to happen as president.

If you'd like to read John McCain's rebuttal that the NYT refused to publish, here it is in its entirety, courtesy of the Drudge Report.

Read them both, Obama's and McCain's.

You decide.