Let me propose the following hypothetical news story. Please understand it is not real, but pretend for a moment it was:

WARNING: THIS IS NOT A REAL STORY!! Biden spouse was member of baby-killing party Tracy Jacobs was twice registered with the Democratic Party Senator Joe Biden's wife, Tracy Jacobs, twice registered as a member of the Democratic Party, a fierce abortion rights group that wants to make sure as many babies as possible are killed. Joe Biden himself was never a member of the party, according to state officials. Tracy Jacobs' party affiliation emerged Tuesday as the latest issue confronting the Obama campaign as it prepared to introduce Senator Biden to the Democratic National Convention. The Obama campaign on Tuesday forcefully worked to tamp down questions about Joe Biden's association with the Democratic Party and with former presidential candidate Al Gore that were being raised by Republicans, Internet bloggers and even Democratic Party officials. Voter registration records and past news reports, however, show Biden never registered as a member of the Democratic Party, and backed Bill Bradley's presidential campaign in 2000, not Gore. "Supporters of John McCain are engaged in an unfortunate and nasty smear campaign," Obama spokesman Brian Rogers said, specifically citing issues related to Biden's politics. Gail Fenumiai, director of the Delaware Division of Elections, said Tracy Jacobs twice registered under the Democratic Party -- in 1995 and 2000. Some members of the party have advocated the killing of all fetuses for population-control purposes, though that is not a goal listed in the party's platform. Joe Biden registered as an independent Voter registration records show Joe Biden registered in May 1982 as a member of the Democratic Party and has not changed his affiliation. Tracy Jacobs has been registered undeclared since 2002, Fenumiai said. Biden did address the Democratic Party's state convention by video earlier this year, welcoming the party to Dover. "Your party plays an important role in our state's politics," he said in the video, which is posted on the party's Web site. "I've always said that competition is so good, and that applies to political parties as well." McCain spokesman Bill Burton objected to Rogers' accusation of a smear. He pointed to comments by Lynette Clark, the chairman of the Democratic Party, who told ABC News that Biden and his wife, Tracy, belonged to the party in 1994. McCain advisers and surrogates have linked Biden to liberal former presidential candidate Al Gore. An Associated Press story from Delaware, dated July 17, 1999, stated that Biden, then senator of Delaware, was wearing a Gore button during a Gore visit to Delaware. Gore or Bradley supporter? But in a letter to the Dover Daily News a week later, Biden wrote: "When presidential candidates visit our community, I am always happy to meet them. I'll even put on their button when handed one as a polite gesture of respect. ... The article may have left your readers with the perception that I am endorsing this candidate, as opposed to welcoming his visit to Dover." A week after that, the Associated Press reported that Biden would serve as a co-chair of Bradley's campaign. Gore himself told MSNBC's Chris Matthews last week that Biden "was a brigadeer in 1996 as was his wife ... They were at a fundraiser for me, he's a terrific guy, he's a rebel reformer." Obama spokesman Michael Goldfarb disputed Gore's claim, saying Biden supported Bradley in 1996 as well. Still, the Miami Herald this week quoted an e-mail from McCain Florida spokesman Mark Bubriski that stated: "Biden was a supporter of Al Gore, a left-winger or as many Christians call him: an environmental wacko that wants to reduce the world's standard of living which would potentially kill millions of people."

The above story is almost humorous, is it not? It basically says Biden didn't do anything wrong, his wife didn't do anything wrong, and that his wife supported either Al Gore or Bill Bradley back in 2000. Yet the story looks very suspicious because the Democratic party is associated in the story with killing babies and one of the candidates that Biden's wife allegedly supported has been called certain names by certain people. In the end, though, it's a silly and slanted story that provides no information that is particularly useful to any voter but raises a vague cloud of doubt around Biden and his wife.

The scary thing, though, is that the above article is simply a minor modification of this story at MSNBC (at least as it appeared on Sep. 3, 2008 at 1:30pm). Virtually all of the above "news report" is identical to the MSNBC story. I just made little modifications to make it a supposed problem for Obama/Biden rather than McCain/Palin, and made appropriate substitutions of names to make it read somewhat logically.

Yet it doesn't make sense. If someone were to read the above story as a real story, virtually everyone (Republicans included) would recognize it as absurd conservatively-biased Biden-bashing. Or it might be treated as comedy or satire. Yet the actual identical story--only aimed against Republicans and Vice Presidential candidate Sarah Palin--is passed off as news by MSNBC... and some people have the gall to suggest that MSNBC isn't simply publicizing a liberal partisan attack against a Republican candidate? And there are those--albeit not many--that think the mainstream media is biased to the right? There are people that think this MSNBC article is really news and not Democratic party propaganda?

Less than a week after Gov. Sarah Palin was named as McCain's vice presidential running mate, the mainstream media has at least entertained--if not completely investigated--the following issues:

1. That Palin didn't look pregnant with her fifth child and maybe she was faking a pregnancy to cover for her teen daughter who was the real mother. Desperate Housewives, anyone? People have been watching too much TV.
   
2. That, actually, Palin was pregnant but went back to work too soon after having a baby. I guess there's something wrong with a mother who is physically able being able to manage both her family and her career.
   
3. That Palin dared travel while she was pregnant.
   
4. That her teen daughter is pregnant.
   
5. That her husband was part of a political party that is only moderately more conservative than the Republican party. She wasn't, but her husband was.
   
6. Whether she supported either Forbes or Buchanan for president in 2000--people who millions of other people also openly supported back then.

In short, they've explored just about every non-relevant personal aspect of her as well as her husband and her family... and they've found nothing. No evidence of affairs, no evidence of shady business dealings, no-one speaking poorly of her as a person or of her integrity. In fact, everything is to the contrary--she receives good marks and has an 80% approval rating in her home state. In the end, they don't give us any reason to think any less of Palin.

There is no serious reporting of her challenging a corrupt Republican party in Alaska. There is no serious reporting on her participation in the Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission , an organization that, among other things, tries to avoid waste of oil and protects underground freshwater. There is little reporting of what she's done as the governor of Alaska other than some minor reporting of what Democrats hope will become a full-fledged scandal (the dismissing of the state trooper). In short, there's been virtually no reporting on her achievements as a politician--which is something people should be informed about given that she's running for vice president. Instead, we're treated to a litany of irrelevant stories about her and her family that not only have nothing to do with her career, but don't reflect poorly on her family! So why are they even being publicized?

This is an obvious character assassination that is being attempted by the mainstream media on behalf of the Democratic Party. And it's downright disgusting.

I'm not saying Sarah Palin is perfect. I just "met" her a week ago. It's not impossible she has some skeletons in her closet and, who knows, maybe the media will find them. God knows they're trying to find them. But in the absence of anything that really condemns her, the mainstream media has unleashed a full-scale attack against Palin's family. Which might even maybe be valid if they had actually found anything wrong with the family. But they haven't.

Compare this to the complete lack of investigation into John Edwards affair. It was tabloid news until Mr. Edwards came out and confessed it himself. Even then many media sources justified why they didn't follow-up on it. Yet now we have Gov. Palin as a vice presidential candidate and they're going after her, her husband, and her family even though there's no indication of wrongdoing! Heck, even CNN reported on it's front page about people betting that Palin will withdrawal, even though to-date there's been no reason provided why she should! The double-standard and bias is so clear that people would have to be blind not to see it.

And Americans are not blind. A Rasmussen Reports poll on September 4th reports that of unaffiliated voters, 49% think the news media is trying to hurt Palin while 32% think the media is unbiased and 5% think the media is trying to help her. The good news is that more people (24%) are more likely to vote for Palin than vote against her (19%) due to this disgusting attack. And, in the same poll, it is found that 49% believe that the media is trying to help Obama while only 14% believe the media is trying to help McCain. Obama has tried to distance himself from the character assassination, and even aides of Hillary Clinton have criticized the media for its sexist tone. In other words, America is not blind. Americans see these attacks against Palin as disgusting and, on balance, they are more likely to vote for her as a result.

If you still aren't convinced, let me ask you this: What has the media told you about Jill Jacobs and her children? Who is Jill Jacobs you might ask? None other than the wife of Democratic Vice Presidential Candidate Joe Biden. Did you know that? Do you know what she's done, what political parties she has belonged to and what her children have done?

If not, please consider the possibility that what I've written here is correct: The media harbors a severe liberal bias and is out to assassinate Sarah Palin's character because they haven't found anything else to discredit her on the merits.

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Edit History
Sep. 4, 2008 - Added paragraph about Rasmussen poll.
Sep. 4, 2008 - Added red boldface disclaimer to the top of fictitious story because even though the first sentence of this article indicated it was not real, some people apparently didn't realize that. The danger of satire, I guess.