Why does cable cover entire McCain/Palin rallies but just bits and pieces of Obama/Biden rallies?

[NNN0LHI]

Any ideas?

Don

[gatorboy]

1. Cause crazy sells. Just ask the carnival.

[Marrah_G]

13. Bingo- way more chances for nutty soundbites.

[TechBear_Seattle]

2. Because the media loves a good scandal

And while Obama/Biden rallies are exciting, they don't have the edge of violence and barely-hidden racial hatred that has become the McCain/Palin trademark.

[ChairmanAgnostic]

3. well, two things.

ever think why so many watch that silly nascar crap, where people drive and drive and nevery really get anywhere? it is for the crashes. And McPalin is going to be a HELL of a crash.

second, there is a carnival atmosphere about her appearances. Unreal, not factual, make-believe, but still a hell of a show.

[Amonester]

4. Because, showing idiots for a longer period of time 'attracks' ...

more viewers than showing intelligent people for the same lenght of time?

Marketing 101...

[Wickerman]

5. Same reason we drive to the outskirts of town to view trainwrecks

and go see tornado damage in the next town. You simply can't look away, hell, it's titillating enough to seek it out.

[shadowknows69]

11. No hopefully a lot of us don't really do that

But I get your point.

[Wickerman]

14. sadly, try living in a small town.

even with the TeeVee and all...

[shadowknows69]

15. I do, and I see it all the time, and I'm glad I seem to be free of that compulsion.

A fire is a Saturday night out around here. The local paper even managed to snap, and print a picture of a kid burning alive in a second story window once. Most unethical editorial decision I've ever seen.

[Wickerman]

22. wow, as a small town news guy

I am appalled at that. They did that kind of crap in the 30's, we know better now.

[shadowknows69]

26. There's a time and occasionally good reason to show death and tragedy in news

This didn't match any of those criteria.

[Ichingcarpenter]

6. Did you know you Probably own an oil company?

Well, if you have mutual funds you probably do. Find out more at
we pay the MSMs bills. com

[w4rma]

7. Because there are things Democratic candidates say that big media doesn't want heard widely.

That is why Democrats have our functions censored.

[SammyWinstonJack]

12. Exactly!

[NNN0LHI]

16. I think you may be on to something

[shadowknows69]

8. Don, do you really need to ask anymore man?

Don't let the media's brief love affair with Obama's poll numbers fool you. They're setting us up for the "comeback kid" after the next debate. No matter what happens the MSM will call this one for McCain I predict. They can't afford to have him go 0-4. If the race is over then so is any sustained ratings for the next two weeks. The media will work its ass off for McCain/Palin with the obvious exceptions, but I sometimes get the feeling that even people like Keith and Rachel are only allowed to be reactive in their reporting. McCain/Palin have plenty of big honking "anti-patriotic" skeletons in their closet that I just don't see them being called on.

[Cobalt Violet]

9. Because they have to be fair and balanced.

:sarcasm:

[Uben]

10. The real reason?

Well, just look at the disparity in the size of audiences. They can't get the whole audience of Obama in one shot like they can the McCain rallies. Also, Obama covers a bevy of subjects and outlines plans he has to bring forth change. That takes time! McCain? Well, he just continues spewing the same ole shit, so they can show it all in just a couple of minutes. I mean, how many times have they showed that "Obama is an Arab." clip?

[stillcool]

17. same old, same old..

it is who they are, and it is what they do. Funny I had a dream that a bunch of Senators got together and shut down all Fox programming. Charged Ailes with treason.

[MtUpWithWngsAsEgles]

18. Because he is setup as the underdog

The media is for entertainment purposes first and everything else second.

A comeback kid sells.

[misskittysister]

19. Trying to not be accused of being "in the bag" for Obama?

I was pondering this the other day, and today (my day off, due to Columbus Day holiday) was able to watch coverage of Joe Biden's N.H. rally in the morning. CNN carried part of it, Fox and MSNBC didn't have any of it. During the next hour, though, blanket coverage of Palin/McCain rally on all the cable news networks! WTF???? Over the weekend on MSNBC's coverage I was struck by how the anchors really avoided letting people know just how bad the McCain rallies had become. They totally soft-pedaled the news of what occurred, instead of saying straight out that people were calling out stuff like "kill him." And Campbell Brown, who's gotten better, was trying to make the two campaigns comparably guilty in playing the guilt by association game, equating the Bill Ayers terrorist thing with Obama's response by mentioning McCain's history with Keating. I couldn't believe it, and it explains why a lot of people really are uninformed about what is going on in this election. I think they are afraid of being called out by the McCain campaign for being "soft on Obama" or some other such crap. BTW, I graduated from journalism school at Penn State, and understand that you should be even handed. But fortunatley, I attended following the Watergate scandal, so also came to realize that fair reporting includes factual calling out of the evil that people in power are doing, and how that is imperative to our democracy to let people know.

[rebel with a cause]

20. I asked myself the same thing this morning when I changed channels

to find palin on all the cable news stations and on C-Span 2. Obama is suppose to be on later, lets see if they cover him. :grr:

[EFerrari]

21. Have you tried to watch Washington Journal or BookTv lately?

It's so far to the right, it's unwatchable.

[librechik]

24. frustrating, isn't it?

I keep waiting for an all liberal day or weekend to balance the many many weekends where it is all rightwing crap and lies. They just put a book here and there, a caller here and there. Makes me screaming shrieking Nutz!

[EFerrari]

25. I wrote Brian Lamb a dear John letter and am lobbying Link

to put up a competitor to BookTv.

Enough of fake books from right wing propaganda mills. I'm done!

[WallStreetNobody]

23. Make no mistake about it, the media wants a close election

They will continue gushing over McCain while constantly talking about the smears on Obama (though not call them smears of course, just talk about them as if they're curious). This race is far from won yet, I know that may piss people off to hear but the fact is Obama is pretty much bumping up against his ceiling and McCain has a lot of room to move up. Obama's margin is on average about 8% or so. That is pretty big but remember if just a 4% of those are only leaning to Obama and they shift to McCain than it becomes an even race. That also doesn't include other undecideds. The media will keep playing into this, as the race tightens even by a point they will be talking about McCain making a comeback, blah blah blah. Personally I won't be comfortable unless I see at least a 5 point lead in the polls within a day or two before the election.