Since a mysteriously edited tape surfaced of Mitt Romney discussing his campaign strategy at a private fundraising dinner in May, the liberal mainstream media has used the tape to determine the Republican nominee's bid for president is all but dead. The Media Research Center (MRC) describes this as lopsided media coverage.
In response to the tape, the Romney campaign on Tuesday (Sept. 18) exposed a 1998 video showing then State Senator Barack Obama espousing his far-left philosophy of wealth redistribution. Media Research Center reports that ABC, CBS and NBC allotted a combined 88 minutes of broadcast time to covering the Romney clip released by the liberal American magazine, Mother Jones.
In comparison, the same networks covered the Obama tape for a total of just over 6 minutes - roughly 8 stories versus 42 for the Romney tape.
"If you're going to cover either gaffs or embarrassing statements or issues where the candidate may not look in a favorable light, you've got to do it evenly," says Rich Noyes of the MRC. "Or else there's no pretense to fairness."
Some journalists claim the Obama tape does not warrant the same kind of coverage, but Noyes refutes that notion.
"The Obama tape reflects on this president's obvious philosophy that is the heart of the issue of this campaign -- which is: are we going to have a government-centered economy, or something where we try to get government out of the way and let the free market get back to business," Noyes declares.
"To bury that tape with just a few fleeting minutes of coverage, while you go nuts over the Romney tape - where he talks basically about the same issue but just from the other angle - and act like that is the most insulting, outrageous thing in the entire world, is to show a double standard, I think."
Both MSNBC and NBC News say they will not air the Obama video because they claim they cannot authenticate that the voice on the video is actually President Obama.
MRC president Brent Bozell says: "Like an overeager Labrador retriever, the liberal media will do anything to please their master, even if it means biting his opponent every day between now and the election."