<em>This Week</em> ... in Liberal Bias

Matt Lewis | September 15, 2008 11:07 AM

The liberals are all over John McCain for his "dishonest" ads. Of course, few are willing to question Obama on his criticism of John McCain's lack of computer use (in fact,

he can't use a keyboard because of P.O.W. injuries).

As you can see below, they don't have an answer to this one ...

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By the way, am I the only one who has seen an uptick in liberal bias since the Palin pick?

Yesterday's edition of This Week was a prime example. It pitted Paul Begala (liberal), Jay Carney (liberal), Claire Shipman (liberal) -- and, of course, host -- George Stephanopoulos (liberal) -- against George Will (lone conservative).

Sounds fair, right?

Begala and Stephanopoulos both famously worked for Bill Clinton. Of course, Carney and Shipman -- who are married -- will both say they are unbiased journalists. (As you might remember, it was Carney who, on MSNBC, attempted to blame conservative bloggers for starting the "whitey" rumors.)

Here's a quote from Jay Carney on yesterday's "Roundtable":

... When the Obama campaign was complacently believing this thing was going to be easy was when John McCain was running as John McCain ... when he was running an above-board campaign ... (but now) they don't care whether the ads are factually correct."

When pushed, these panelists grudgingly admit that McCain and Palin are doing well politically. But its all framed from the perspective that if McCain does well, it's because he is fooling the public, because everyone knows Obama's positions are best for the country.

Later in the program, regarding McCain's recent education ad, Claire Shipman said: ... but you have to agree, the way that ad was phrased, is completely misleading ... (George Will at this point interrupted, saying, "I do not agree with that.")

There's nothing wrong with having liberals and conservatives debate these issues. What concerns me is when ABC presents the Roundtable as if it were three unbiased "mainstream" journalists, versus one liberal and one conservative. In fact, it was 4-against-1 ...