Mainstream Media Predicted to Praise Kerry-Edwards 'Glow'
by Chad Groening
July 26, 2004
(AgapePress) - As Democrats meet in Boston this week for their presidential nominating convention, one of the nation's leading media critics says it is clear that the mainstream media will give John Kerry quite an advantage during this year's presidential election campaign.In a recent issue of Newsweek magazine, writer Evan Thomas made the following observation regarding the upcoming presidential election: "'The media ... wants Kerry to win. They're going to portray Kerry and Edwards as being young and dynamic and optimistic .... There's going to be this glow about them ... that's going to be worth maybe 15 points."
L. Brent Bozell is founder and president of the Media Research Center, based in Alexandria, Virginia. He agrees with Thomas -- who is not a conservative, he points out.
"I believe in what Evan Thomas said," Bozell states. "Whether it's 15 points or 10 points or 18 points or 7 points, I don't know -- but I do believe that there is a dramatic advantage that Kerry has, given the support he's got of the national so-called news media."
According to the MRC head, things would be different if the media covered the election fairly. "I suspect George Bush would have a 10-point lead right now," he says.
While it is not uncommon for a presidential ticket to receive a "bounce" in the polls in the days and weeks following its party's national convention, Bozell says the mainstream media has been overstepping the bounds. "The press today is on an absolute tear, attempting to influence American public opinion," he says.
Bozell recently published Weapons of Mass Distortion: The Coming Meltdown of the Liberal Media, in which he makes the case that the major television, radio, and print news outlets not only distort the news, but try to dictate the national agenda. He claims the book makes "the most substantive case yet for the leftward bias of America's mainstream news organizations."
