If You Didn't Believe Ted Stevens, Don't Believe the Media Hype

From the moment Alaskan Senator Ted Stevens denied the allegations against him, I didn't believe him. And today, my reaction was validated both as accurate and knee-jerk.

So why the double validation?

First, since I begun writing on politics in the mid-1990's, there has been so many examples of politicians betraying the public trust, I simply don't even give them the benefit-off-the-doubt.

And why should I? Here's just a partial list:

Mark Foley
James Traficant
Bill Clinton
Gary Condit
John Edwards
Tim Mahoney
Vito J. Fossella
Eliot L. Spitzer
David Vitter
Larry Craig
Ted Stevens
Mike Nifong

But it doesn't stop with politicians, there have been a number of media scandals. Of the past few years, the most egregious were perpetrated by Jayson Blair and Dan Rather. Blair was found to have been making stories out-of-whole-cloth and Rather used forged documents in Memogate.

Sometimes, media bias and scandal is revealed by content or by favor (the NYT gave a sweetheart rate to Moveon.org for an ad). Other times, the media is caught in deception as Michelle Kosinski proved in a video report in Wayne, NJ on the Today Show (she was in a canoe paddling in supposed deep flood waters when two men walk by and reveal the water only to be inches deep).

Just days ago, the Pew Research Center released it's findings on Obama/McCain media coverage, and to no surprise, the democrat candidate faired far better than the republican. Thirty-six percent of the stories about Obama were positive, and thirty-five percent were neutral or mixed. While McCain negative stories were fifty-seven percent and a lowly fourteen percent were positive.

This is why I do not believe the media hype about a landslide Obama victory. As I have written before, the polls will tighten in these last days of the campaign and tighten they have. As of today, five national tracking polls show a close race:

IBD/TIPP--Obama 47, McCain 44
Obama +3

Diageo/Hotline--Obama 50, McCain 42
Obama +8

Reuters/C-SPAN/Zogby--Obama 50, McCain 45
Obama +5

Gallup (Traditional)*--Obama 50, McCain 45
Obama +5

Rasmussen Reports--Obama 51, McCain 46
Obama +5

And with the finding of Obama's 2001 interview, in which he clearly promotes wealth redistribution, the polls will tighten further and might even swing to a McCain lead. We the public have been subjected before by the media hype and this surely won't be the last time.