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Media is biased towards Obama, says McCain

Washington: The Republican presidential hopeful, John McCain, let his frustration with the U.S. media boil over on Tuesday for its coverage of Senator Barack Obama’s visit to West Asia and Europe.

Mr. McCain, upset over the extent to which his campaign has been eclipsed, launched a video on the Internet entitled Obama Love, with quotes from TV anchors and journalists that he regards as evidence of bias. It came the day after Mr. McCain protested over what he saw as another sign of bias, a rejection of a comment article on Iraq he submitted to the New York Times.

It is a turnaround for Mr. McCain, who established a reputation for open relations with the press during his unsuccessful run for the Republican nomination in 2000 and during this year’s primaries contest. But since Mr. Obama won the Democratic nomination last month, his campaign team has complained repeatedly that the U.S. media is behaving as if the election is a foregone conclusion.

While Mr. Obama was in Jordan on Tuesday, Mr. McCain was addressing a town hall meeting in Rochester, New Hampshire, and was scheduled to speak at a town hall meeting in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, on Wednesday. The New Hampshire Union Leader reported there was only one reporter on the tarmac when Mr. McCain touched down in the state on Monday in contrast with the enormous media pack accompanying Mr. Obama.

Journalists who won prized places on his plane, dubbed “Obama One” and painted with his slogan “Change we can believe in,” flew from Chicago to join him in Jordan, and would accompany him on the remainder of the trip. They are being reinforced by journalists travelling independently. Mr. Obama has the anchors from the main TV networks travelling with him.

Mr. McCain is seeking a way to wrest the headlines back from Mr. Obama and there is some media speculation he could announce his choice of Vice-President this week. The columnist, Robert Novak, who has good contacts among Republicans, said a decision on Vice-President would be made this week. Mr. McCain’s campaign team refused to confirm or deny it but said the shortlist had been narrowed.

Mr. McCain’s team criticised Mr. Obama for acknowledging in Amman that he is at odds with the US commander in Iraq, General David Petraeus, over Mr. Obama’s proposed pull-out of troops. Mr. Obama said Gen. Petraeus wanted to retain flexibility but Mr. Obama insisted that, as President, he had to take a global view of priorities.

Mr. McCain’s team said Mr. Obama should not presume to know better than the General who had fought a successful war. In the row with the New York Times, Mr. McCain sent in his article in response to one by Mr. Obama about Iraq. When the newspaper opted against publication, his campaign team leaked the decision to the Drudge Report website.

Rupert Murdoch’s New York Post published the article on Tuesday and carried an editorial accusing the New York Times of bias: “The New York Times is showing its true colour again (i.e. cobalt blue): just days after running an essay by Barack Obama slamming John McCain’s Iraq policy proposals, the paper summarily nixed the Arizona senator’s rejoinder.” — © Guardian Newspapers Limited, 2008

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