The facade of objectivity the mainstream media have promoted for years is gone. They are in the tank for Barack Obama so totally, their credibility as purveyors of unbiased journalism has been completely demolished.

All three prime-time news anchors for ABC, CBS and NBC have accompanied Sen. Obama on his “fact-finding” tour of the Middle East. Such coverage is a historic first for someone who has not yet been elected president. It is also a conspicuous contrast to their coverage of John McCain. He has taken three trips to the Middle East since his nomination as the Republican candidate. Total number of network anchors present on all three trips–combined?

Zero.

I am not particularly enamored with Sen. McCain. Like many conservatives, I see him as the lesser of two evil choices come November–perhaps even the lesser of the two most evil choices many of us have seen in our lifetimes.

But if there is a bright spot on the horizon, it is this: voting for John McCain may be somewhat nauseating, but taking the mainstream media and its overt prejudices down a peg–or ten–could be positively exhilarating. Just like the 2004 election, many of us got far less pleasure watching George W. Bush get re-elected than we did watching the collective hand-wringing of “dumbfounded” media hacks who couldn’t figure out how their anointed candidate, John Kerry, could lose to their anointed whipping boy.

Such a comeuppance for these self-aggrandizing hacks is worth a reprise. No matter who wins in November, we’re getting a mediocrity as president. But one choice (Obama) validates and greatly enhances the power of a media no longer interested in providing Americans with untainted information. The other (McCain) “smacks them upside the head.”

Silly reason to vote for one candidate over the other? Maybe. But if you’re one of those Americans who thinks our Fourth Estate is looking more and more like a Fifth Column, maybe not.

atahlert@comcast.net

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