In addition to the reasons I mentioned in my final Election night installment of From the MonT-SteR’s Mouth, there is yet another factor mitigating against the Kerry-media axis’ stubborn refusal to put Ohio in Bush’s column.
Take a look at the numbers in Pennsylvania today. Kerry’s margin of victory there is slimmer than Bush’s in Ohio by about 11,000 votes. Nevertheless, the networks confidently called Pennsylvania for Kerry early last night and are still holding out on projecting Ohio for Bush — despite the fact that 100% of the precincts have reported in (compared to 99% for PA).
I don’t hear any talk of a Bush challenge in PA in the media. I don’t hear any media speculation about what legal recourse is available to Bush in PA and what it might turn in his favor. I haven’t heard a word about how “every vote needs to be counted” in PA. There haven’t been any media calls for patience in declaring a winner in PA, lest voters who cast provisional ballots be disenfranchised. To my knowledge, Tom Brokaw’s patronizing refrain of “What’s one more day?” hasn’t been applied to the utlimate outcome of the PA election results.
I had mixed feelings about the media last night as I watched the election coverage. At times, I thought they were doing a good job of exercising restraint in projecting state winners. This morning, I’m back to being completely disgusted with them all.
Bias, bias, and more bias. If they were honest about it, I wouldn’t mind so much. But this utter pretense of objectivity that Jennings/Brokaw/Rather/Lehrer/etc. maintain frosts my butt to the core.
Journalistic malpractice. There ought to be a law against it.
Blessings,
Rob
aka The MonT-SteR
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