So, do you think the MSM treated dems and Obama unfairly this election cycle?

[cali]

How would you compare the coverage to 2004? I've seen a lot of claims that the MSM always backs repukes. I didn't see that this year, and media studies don't bear that out. I was pleasantly surprised by media coverage of Obama and dems this year. I don't attribute that to their having found a principled place to report from, but whatever the reason, the MSM coverage this year was substantially improved.

[stray cat]

1. I actually thought it was similar to 2004 until McCain collapsed

[babylonsister]

2. I think Obama bowled them over. From Europe and the ME this

summer, to the crowds this fall, to his graciousness on the trail (especially compared to McSame) and his soaring speeches, he was difficult to ignore.

[bunkerbuster1]

3. Combination of the Obama campaign's competence and McCain's utter failure

I think Palin/McCain had about a two week honeymoon, but once the Gibson and Couric interviews got out there, the big media outlets couldn't continue to paper over the horror.

[Nicholas D Wolfwood]

4. "Lipstick on a pig"

The election post-mortems don't usually include this as a changing point in the election, but I sure do. It happened so close to the economic collapse that it gets overlooked, but I've held that this was THE changing point in the election. The overreaction to Obama's lipstick on a pig comment marked the moment the media and the public truly started seeing the McCain campaign for what it was and was not: Namely, it was NOT on the issues and it was in favor of the shrill mudslinging and dirty politics of the past. The media started questioning why McCain was harping on such a trivial issue, making a mountain out of whatever-could-be-considered-less-than-a-molehill. They stopped giving him a free pass and stopped truly questioning whether or not we were being too hard or sexist on Palin. I truly believe that this turning point more than any other marked the beginning of the end for McCain.

[MannyGoldstein]

5. The MSM Stopped Protecting The Rethugs So Much

Until recently, the entire MSM (other than Fox and a few others) felt compelled to somehow show the two parties as equally positive or negative no matter how unequal they were, e.g., "George Bush performed ritual human sacrifice on the White Hous lawn today, but Nancy Pelosi is rumored to be holding an overdue library book - here's Wolf Blitzer live from his vigil at the San Francisco Public Library with details.

To a large degree, the MSM has realized how shatteringly irresponsible this practice is, and is starting to call things fairly.

[blm]

8. I think media just COULDN'T spin the bad news into pie for Bush anymore - starting with Katrina

and then 3 straight years of Record Home Foreclosure numbers.

I believe if they COULD have they WOULD have - but there was not enough icing in the world to cover the heaping piles of crap Bush has served up the country.

Palin is actually dead on about the 2008 election - there was no way for even a Super Republican to win in 2008 - If Ronald Reagan ran in 2008 he wouldn't have won.

[gollygee]

6. Until it became obvious that they were going to lose

They know which side of the bread is buttered.

[OmmmSweetOmmm]

7. They did show more of Obama's speeches than they did Kerry's, but that said

there were the McShame and CariBoo Barbie's speeches shown in entirety and they all but ignored Joe Biden. Of course he wasn't ignored when he had the occasional foot in the mouth moment, and that was played ad nauseum.

It also seems that you have forgotten clip after clip of the Reverend Wright, and MSM following the Bill Ayers angle and yet so little about McCrash and his history with lobbyists, including the Keating Five and except for Keith and Rachel, little about batshit crazy Sarah and her religion, AIP and travelgate.

There was no public admonishment of the hate that Barbie stirred up and all the lies she spewed and all of those mindless followers who still believe all those lies. In the aftermath of the election, this is still not being cleared up and all of those cult followers believe her lies as gospel.