Bias, or fickleness and laziness?

Bridget wonders if there will be fair coverage in the Obama-McCain race. I say, it depends on your definition of "fair."

I'm always amused when people see vast conspiracies is media coverage, as if there's some daily memo from "them" that goes out to all the mainstream media people saying what we're going to write about. As if we could be that organized!

The truth is that what so many people chalk up to institutional bias is more about institutional laziness and fickleness. So many of the stories are the ones that are easy and sexy (politically speaking). And if Obama is doing/saying something sexy enough to write an easy Page 1 story, he gets the coverage. Same goes for McCain. We journalists are a fairly simple people.

Does this all translate to fair coverage? Not in the sense of same amount of words or news play every day. But it's fair in the sense that we don't discriminate against anyone who wants to make sexy news that's easy to write and get us good play. Honestly, it's not all that different from reality TV programs like "American Idol." Who gets the best press? The weirdos, the loudmouths and the winners -- not the talented.