TOPIC: Liberal Bias in the Media -- PROVEN
I'm not a big John Gibson fan, but his latest My Word notes something The Sope-Bocks has been saying since Day One (post regarding this bias are here, this one and one other). Here is the transcript from Gibson's MyWord:

"I have long thought the mainstream media is decidedly left wing. Now there's proof. The Center for Media and Public Affairs did an accounting of the network newscasts from September 5 thru October 22 and found an overwhelming liberal bias. On the "Big Three" network newscasts, the audit showed a clear jihad against the Republican Party. Only 12 percent of election stories that aired on NBC, ABC, or CBS could be regarded as remotely "favorable" to Republicans.
In contrast, as The Washington Times put it this morning, "Democrats basked in glory." The study showed that 77 percent of news accounts in the six-week period offered favorable evaluations of Democratic candidates and lawmakers. Robert Lichter, director of the CMPA, said: "The numbers are pretty striking. The coverage has become a referendum on Republican leadership."The killer stat from this study: Midterm elections in 2002 warranted only 35 stories from the "Big Three." Midterms in 2006 got 167 stories, and 77 percent were pro-Democrat.
Now, we've known for many years that reporters, editors and news executives are overwhelmingly liberal or Democrat. There really isn't much point debating that anymore. But what's changed here — this time around — is the willingness to come out of the closet. Instead of just tilting left in the story while pretending to be objective, the mask is now off.
The mainstream media, typified by the "Big Three," is rooting for the Democrats to win, and slant coverage to make it happen. They want to make sure the conservative argument is shouted down, buried and made entirely disreputable. They do it with coverage: story selection, interview selection, sound bite selection and snarky scripts, and lead the viewers to their network conclusions that were set in stone at the 9:00 a.m. meeting.
These are people who think so little of their own vaunted tradition of objectivity that they are willing to throw it all away just to see their favorites win an election. And why is that? It all comes down to Bush. It all comes down to the huge number of elites in this country who think it is their duty to bring the Bush era to an end, to bury it, and marginalize anyone who says Bush was really right all along.
Stand by. More of this is coming, especially if the Democrats win and they get subpoena power. This is what they have been living for.
That's My Word." -- John Gibson

What EVERYONE needs to key on from the transcript is this: "The mainstream media, typified by the "Big Three," is rooting for the Democrats to win, and slant coverage to make it happen. They want to make sure the conservative argument is shouted down, buried and made entirely disreputable." Bernard Goldberg was an award winning reporter for CBS -- and has written a book about the left leaning bias of the mainstream media. It's a very good read for anyone questioning the validity of bias claims.
This morning, Jennifer Harper, of The Washington Times, penned an article regarding the same study. Here are a couple of good quotes:

• CBS Evening News anchor Katie Couric (aka Katie Communist), for example, said yesterday that 2006 would prove a "wave election, where public dissatisfaction changes the political environment" and "incumbents are washed away."

• On NBC, Brian Williams led a report from Ohio with the phrase, "Could this red state end up going blue?"

• ABC News' Jake Tapper also showcased Ohio voters, saying they showed "an extra layer of disillusion with the Republican Party."

Like negative campaign ads, negative news reports may have a destructive rebound effect on a fickle viewing public. "For the past week, the mainstream media has run story after story about the nastiness of this year's campaign ads -- perhaps as a way to distract our attention from their own dirty tricks," observed Stephen Spruiell of National Review Online yesterday.
"Viewers can get sick of negative TV coverage. They consistently rate the news coverage as one of the worst parts of a campaign, specifically citing negative content," Robert Lichter (Director of the CMPA) said.