Fair & Balanced?? ... or why Tim Russert should move to FOX News

It's taken a while for me to find the time to post this, but I simply can't let this pass without comment. If anyone watched "Meet The Press" on Sunday you no doubt heard Tim Russert say there would be a discussion at the end of the program between David Brooks of The New York Times, who thinks Sen. Clinton should drop out of the race, and Peter Beinart of Time magazine, who thinks she should stay in the race.

I'm posting this because after watching the discussion it's clear this was yet another example of media bias.

Beinart, who was allegedly supporting Clinton's continuation in the contest, was anything BUT a supporter. Anyone who has been watching NBC or MSNBC knows the network has a definite anti-Clinton bias, but this was really over the top.

As mentioned above, the segment featured Brooks, who basically took the position that Clinton should drop out of the race, and Beinart who all but flat out said Clinton should drop out. As I watched this I kept asking "where is the voice for those of us who think Clinton has every right to continue this contest."

I won't share with you the comments by Brooks, because he was billed as the person opposed to Clinton continuing. Instead, let's take a look at what the so-called "Clinton supporter" said:

MR. BEINART: I think Barack Obama is actually a stronger candidate, just as David was saying, today, than he was a few months ago. He has weathered this Jeremiah Wright scandal, which was the biggest problem of his campaign. It's better for him that it came out now. Imagine if we only learned about Jeremiah Wright in October. He has shown that he can take a punch, he's shown that he knows how to respond to a Swift Boat-style attack and I think he's actually become a better candidate because these primaries have been so tough. [...]

MR. RUSSERT: Peter, Pat Leahy's saying that Hillary Clinton's comments about Barack Obama, not measuring up as commander in chief and so forth, hurting Obama more than anything McCain has said about Obama.

MR. BEINART: I don't think that's true. I think, in fact, that Barack Obama is a stronger general election candidate today than he was. And the general problem is you can't ask Hillary Clinton to drop out, it seems to me, reasonably, if she's winning states. If she starts to lose states, I think there's no question she will be out of this race. If she loses Pennsylvania on April 22, if she loses Indiana, certainly, on May 6. Maybe even if she just loses North Carolina on May 6. But if, in the unlikely event that she manages to win these states, it's going to be very difficult to tell her to drop out. [...]

Thank goodness for a short audio clip from former Gov. Madeleine Kunin (D-VT) who said: It seems a bit patronizing to tell her, "Honey, you've got to drop out for the good of the party."

Then back to a discussion of Rev. Wright.

MR. BEINART: But we just went through Jeremiah Wright, and David already said that it hasn't hurt Barack Obama amongst independents. The evidence is in.

MR. BROOKS: Among the independents, among Democrats.

MR. BEINART: But it hasn't hurt him amongst independents, either. It has hurt him a little bit amongst Republicans. Republicans, I think, are coming home to John McCain, to some degree. I think that was probably inevitable. I think it's worth noting that we also--this seems so stretched out because the primary was so compressed, the calendar's changed over the four years that it's become so compressed that now it seems epically long, when it's really just as long as it was eight or 12 years ago. [...]

MR. BEINART: I totally agree with David that her chances are 5 percent or even less at this point. [...]

MR. RUSSERT: The superdelegates would say, even though she's behind in elected delegates, she's shown momentum and strength as a candidate.

MR. BEINART: I wouldn't bet the mortgage on it. [...]

This is the best Tim Russert could do? And why promote this as a balanced discussion, when it was anything BUT balanced? Even the most ardent Obama support should be able to see the clear bias.

I'm not the only one who has posted for months about the media bias against Sen. Clinton. This latest example does little more than add fuel to the fire.

The interview prompted me to send yet another contribution to Sen. Clinton's campaign. If you agree with me, please do the same.