Redstate

Everything you need to know about the presidential race

By Robert A. Hahn Posted in 2008 — Comments (1) / Email this page » / Leave a comment »

The Associated Press and Reuters are busy contributing to the nation's preparation for next year's presidential election by covering the Democratic candidates' efforts to woo voters in Iowa. The headline above is the one the AP is using.

The AP's John Glover tells us that

The race for the Democratic presidential nomination moved into overdrive Saturday, as candidates scrambled to outdo each other to win over the Iowa activists who will leadoff the contest on Jan. 3.

Six Democratic rivals trotted out celebrities, filled the air with populist rhetoric and schmoozed party regulars in the most hectic day of a campaign that's been intense for months.

Glover had some words about John Edwards, but as he put it, "it was the matchup between Clinton and Barack Obama that was watched closest."

Over at Reuters, John Whitesides says that

Six Democratic presidential contenders wooed Iowans at a raucous fund-raising dinner on Saturday, with Barack Obama and John Edwards taking veiled shots at front-runner Hillary Clinton on a night filled with dueling cheers and red-meat rhetoric.

If you were wondering what the two leading wire services are telling the American people about what the Republican candidates are doing at this exciting time, the answer is... well... virtually nothing. That's right, both of the wire services that American newspapers use to inform their readers about political events wrote long, glowing articles about what the Democratic candidates said yesterday. What did the Republicans say in their speeches? Nada.

Yesterday, Romney was in New Hampshire. The only story the AP filed was about the "Questions about Romney's Mormon faith [that] have dogged him during the primary campaign." Reuters had nothing about Romney's activities in New Hampshire.

Rudy Giuliani was in Loveland, Colorado. There's no telling what he did there; neither wire service had a word about it. Mike Huckabee was in New Hampshire. I don't know what Huckabee did either; there's no news story about him. McCain was also in New Hampshire. Whatever he did, it wasn't news. Neither wire service said a word about it. The AP did do a story today about McCain attending a ceremony at a Veterans cemetery this morning. Reuters passed.

If a newspaper without its own reporters covering the candidates really wanted to tell its readers what both parties' candidates were doing, they might turn to the French wire service Agence France-Presse (AFP). The AFP did do an article entitled Democrats joust for vital votes in Iowa, but alas, nothing on the Republicans.

Is the media biased? No, they just decide what's important and cover it. If the public needs to know about something, they'll be right on it.