Even in the last days of this race, saying "God damn America" was far less reprehensible to the media than replaying it.

Both anchors thought they were being tough by asking the drape-measuring question regarding how Democrats might overreach if they hold all the levers of power in Washington, but both phrased it in a tone which said, "Please reassure voters that this is not a real cause for concern." Williams asked for "assurance" for the American people, and Couric wanted Obama to "assuage" public fears.

The burden of scrutinizing and questioning the new Democratic ruling machine in Washington is already being shrugged off by the Obama press. Once again, it's going to fall on Fox News Channel and alternative media outlets from radio to the Internet to try and hold Obama accountable. No wonder the Democrats are making noise about crushing anti-Obama dissent on the airwaves with a revised version of the old "Fairness Doctrine."

In the primary elections, it became clear when it was over that Obama's win of just one-tenth of a percentage point of the 35 million votes cast that the media's pro-Obama bias created that narrow margin of victory. The general election result wasn't that close, and the punishing circumstances of vigorous Bush hatred and the collapse of economic confidence possibly were just too much for the GOP nominee to overcome.

But try and imagine how different this campaign would have looked if the media's momentum manufacturers favored McCain with all the unashamed ardor and aggression that they brought in support of Obama. Deep down, the media agree with Evan Thomas that their bias can add five or 10 points to a Democrat's vote total, and they eagerly demonstrated that they were ready to shred their own credibility as allegedly objective referees to achieve that victorious result.