Media bias: Have I been wrong?

2/6/08

I have never bought in to the so-called Liberal media bias. I'm sure my more-conservative brother would say that's a reflection on me, and not the facts, but I'll disagree, and that conversation will go on deep into the margaritas until we give up trying to convince each other and move on to discussing the finer qualities of Serena William's on-court fashions. (We have no disagreements there.)

But once upon a time, he offered a simple and interesting example: If a news program reports that the President's approval rating is falling, but then doesn't report when it rises, then that is a media bias: If the approval rating is worthy of reporting, fluctuations in both directions should be announced.

This morning (the day after Super Tuesday voting) I went to CNN.com for updates and saw this headline:

McCain claims he's front-runner; Dems split

Then I looked at the delegate count at the end of Super Tuesday:

Republicans (Needed to Win = 1,191)
Candidate Pledged Unpl.RNC Total
McCain 542 17 559
Romney 256 9 265
Huckabee 166 3 169

It's true, McCain did say in his victory speech, "Although I've never minded the role of the underdog, and have relished as much as anyone come from behind wins, tonight I think we must get used to the idea that we are the Republican Party front-runner for the nomination of President of the United States." But when one candidate has more than twice as many delegates as his closest opponent, and more delegates than all other candidates combined, they don't need to claim that they are the front-runner: They are the front-runner. Imagine if the Giants had been ahead of the Patriots 14 to 7 at halftime and Eli Manning had said, "I'm glad we're ahead": Reporters would not say, "Eli Manning claims to be ahead at half-time." McCain didn't claim to have secured the Republican nomination; he didn't claim to have demonstrated his superiority as a candidate; he simply noted that after a long time spent lagging in the polls (to quote NPR, "six months ago his campaign seemed to be headed for the glue factory") he was now the front-runner.

The inclusion of the unnecessary word "claims" in the headline devalues his success, and someone who read only the headline would wonder, "Is he the actual front-runner, or is he just claiming to be the front-runner?" I can think of only two reasons CNN would opt for that phrasing following McCain's victory at the polls: One, they are careless with their choice of words (unlikely, considering their business is words), or two, they consciously want to devalue his victory.

Rats, I guess the next round of margaritas is going to be my treat: By this example, my brother can claim to be right.