In a clear sign of where their heart lies, the Big Three TV networks, by a whopping 13 to 1 margin, devoted much more coverage to Mitt Romney's month's old "47 percent" secret video than to President Obama's 14-year-old but just discovered wealth "redistribution" audio.
Over the three days this week that they hit the media, network morning shows and evening news devoted one hour, 28 minutes, 23 seconds to the Romney tape over 42 stories and just six minutes, 28 seconds over eight stories to the Obama clip.
And even if the timeline is shortened to the Tuesday night release of the Obama audio, the ratio is 10-1, according to an analysis provided to Secrets from conservative media watchdog Media Research Center.
And their analysis doesn't include Thursday night's NBC Saturday Night Live Weekend Update hit on the 47 percent tape or print coverage of the comments that NBC News anchor Brian Williams suggested was a "game changer" in the election still stuck at 47 percent to 47 percent according to Gallup.
"The double-standard within just one week of the news cycle is staggering. A surreptitiously taken video of Mitt Romney published by leftist magazine Mother Jones outpaced coverage of an Obama tape at a public event by a 10 to 1 ratio. It has to be asked if the scenarios were reversed and it was a hidden camera video of Obama published by the conservative National Review would the liberal media have reacted as excitedly?" asked MRC.
MRC collected some of the media's characterization of the Romney video that suggested it would doom his campaign:
"The media's furor over the Romney tape began on Monday night, September 17, when NBC Nightly News anchor Brian Williams teased viewers about Romney comments that he promised will 'raise eyebrows when heard.' By Tuesday morning the Big Three journalists were in full attack mode against Romney. ABC's Amy Robach, on Good Morning America, exclaimed: 'New bombshell rocking the Mitt Romney campaign.' ABC's George Stephanopoulos wondered where Romney's comments would 'register on the Richter Scale?' Later that evening, on ABC's World News, anchor Diane Sawyer joined her colleague in the tectonic imagery as she told viewers of the 'political earthquake that occurred on a seismic day' for the campaign."
ABC News correspondent Amy Robach says she has breast cancer, a month after she was given a mammogram on the air for a "Good Morning America"
story.
