Exhibit A: Oh, wait, it doesn't actually exist...

If candidates and media watchdogs repeat claims of liberal bias enough, people will start to consider the bias a reality. According to a recent survey, voters believe by almost 8-to-1 that journalists want Obama to win. The Pew Research Center for the People and the Press survey was released on Wednesday, with 70% of respondents saying that they think most newspaper reporters and TV journalists want Obama to win, compared with 9% who said that journalists probably want to see McCain win. The survey also analyzed results based on respondents' political affiliations and found that the general conclusions held true regardless of party. The Media Research Center listed this data as its top news story, suggesting that voters agree with the existence of liberal bias, which the MRC has been trying to expose throughout the campaign (http://www.mrc.org/cyberalerts/2008/cyb20081024.asp#1).

The survey did not ask respondents to explain why they believe that journalists favor Obama, and there were no concrete examples of this perceived media bias. The conclusions of the survey essentially spoke to the success of Conservatives in convincing the majority of the general public that the media unfairly favor Obama. This conclusion is held by many people, although hardly anyone has been able to point to solid evidence of this perceived bias. The fact that Obama has generally received more media coverage is somewhat understandable: he is newer to the national political scene than McCain, which means that people need to be more familiarized with his background and policies. Also, his undeniable charisma makes him an ideal source for quotes in news stories. Furthermore, the media tend to focus on the horse-race, meaning they dwell on which candidate is ahead in the polls instead of analyzing the issues and platforms. Since Obama has been ahead of McCain in the polls for quite some time, it is therefore natural that he would receive more attention. Most polls predict that Obama will win the election; journalists are not biased simply because they report these findings. If researchers, the MRC, voters and Republicans claim that the media is biased toward Obama, they should have to present some sort of evidence to back their claim. Their claim of liberal bias might be hollow, but it could also negatively affect the Obama campaign by cheapening his success.