McCain supporters accuse media of bias

The decision by American networks to send senior journalists to cover US presidential candidate Barack Obama's overseas tour has fuelled accusations of media bias in favour of the Democratic nominee-in-waiting.

CBS chief anchor Katie Couric in Jordan tomorrow, ABC's Charles Gibson in Israel on Wednesday and NBC's Brian Williams in Germany on Thursday all are due to interview Mr Obama who will contest the White House vote with the Republican Party's John McCain in November.

It follows TV comedy sketches that show the media fawning over Mr Obama and has fuelled accusations of bias by some of his critics.

The news media has devoted significantly more attention to the Democrat since Hillary Clinton suspended her campaign, according to research conducted by the Project for Excellence in Journalism.

News executives say there are reasons for the disparity, such as the continuing story about whether Mrs Clinton and Mr Obama's supporters can reconcile.

They even partly blame Mr McCain whose criticisms of Mr Obama's perceived lack of foreign policy experience raised the stakes for the trip.

Mr Obama began his trip in Afghanistan before heading to Iraq. He will visit Jordan, Israel, Germany, France and the UK in the upcoming week. Network anchors stayed home during Mr McCain's recent foreign excursions.

"The question really needs to be posed. Is this type of coverage fair?" said Eric Cantor, a Republican congressman. "This is nothing but a political stunt."

Conservative radio talk show host Rush Limbaugh said: "My prediction is that the coverage of Obama on this trip will be oriented toward countering the notion he has no idea what he is talking about on foreign policy and defence issues and instead will prop him up as a qualified statesman.

"McCain, on the other hand, is a known quantity on these issues and his position does not excite nor fit the mainstream media's narrative on Iraq and Afghanistan, so they simply ignore it and him."

For each of the weeks between June 9 and July 13, Mr Obama had a much more significant media presence.

The Project for Excellence in Journalism evaluates more than 300 political stories each week in newspapers, magazines and television to measure whether each candidate is talked about in more than 25% of the stories.

Every week, Mr Obama played an important role in more than two thirds of the stories.

For July 7-13, for example, Mr Obama was a significant presence in 77% of the stories while Mr McCain was in 48%, the PEJ said.