Anyone who's ever watched a football game on television (or any othe sport) should be familiar with announcers who keep pointing out the path by which the losing team can come back. The Cowboys may be down 15 points with five minutes left but stay tuned because they only need two scores plus a two-point conversion to tie. Not only is a comeback a good story, it keeps the eyeballs on the ads.
So it goes with debate and campaign coverage. As I watched the debate last night, I though Obama clearly won. And he's way ahead in the race. But everyone on CNN was saying that it was McCain's best night, that he was the aggressor, yada, yada, yada, even if it may not have been a game changer-- at least until the polls showed that American saw Obama winniing big. When David Gergen said that McCain is really out of options, the other folks on st laughed because Gergen is really not supposed to say that.
The media's real bias is not left or right, it's to hype the story. Nothing in the news is as important as it seems to be when you are watching it. (Also true of life, by the way.) Thus all campaign coverage must be viewed with the knowledge that the TV networks want -- need -- viewers to think this is stlll anyone's game.
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