Last night, as we attempted to watch the Republican National Convention, our digital cable service kept pooping out. Not once, not twice or even three times, but ten times in the hours leading up to Palin’s speech our cable box suddenly, and without warning, rebooted itself. As a result, we couldn’t pause the speeches from Romney, Huckabee or Guiliani, much less rewind the better parts so we could listen once again. By the time Palin took the podium, VH and I had grown disgusted.

It was bad enough that our viewing choices were limited to PBS or CNN, both of which featured liberal analysts ripping apart the speeches as they happened, often to the preclusion of presenting the speeches themselves. Those “facts” that CNN kept displaying in the ticker? More than once VH had to restrain me from putting a foot through the TV screen in outrage over their blatant bias.

By the time we unplugged our digital box and wired cable directly into the TV so we could watch the RNC without worrying about yet another reboot both VH and I began to wonder: was it on purpose? Was this part of the MSM’s campaign against Palin and McCain? Mind you, we’re not conspiracy-minded people. Eventually we decided that the 5+ inches of rain we’ve had in the past two days might be the cause of the cable disruption. Or so, at least, we’d like to believe.

But when CNN’s talking heads scoffed at Palin for taking the media to task over its bias, claiming that McCain has had a “love affair” with MSM for over 20 years, we couldn’t help wondering: doesn’t the media read the tripe that it puts out? William Kristol warned this would happen.

So what we will see in the next days and weeks–what we have already seen in the hours after her nomination–is an effort by all the powers of the old liberalism, both in the Democratic party and the mainstream media, to exorcise this spectre. They will ridicule her and patronize her. They will distort her words and caricature her biography. They will appeal, sometimes explicitly, to anti-small town and anti-religious prejudice. All of this will be in the cause of trying to prevent the American people from arriving at their own judgment of Sarah Palin.

The media, of course, continues to deny it’s on a witch hunt. But, as we say in the blogosphere, if there isn’t a picture it didn’t happen. In this case there’s not one but two pictures revealing just how vicious and virulent the media bias against Palin and McCain has grown.

After an anonymous commenter at Daily Kos suggested that Palin might not actually be the mother of her infant son, Trig, but rather the child’s grandmother, MSM took up the comment as a rallying cry.

In an extraordinary and emotional interview, Steve Schmidt said his campaign feels “under siege” by wave after wave of news inquiries that have questioned whether Palin is really the mother of a 4-month-old baby, whether her amniotic fluid had been tested and whether she would submit to a DNA test to establish the child’s parentage.

As Mark Hemingway reminds us, this is the same media who decided to sit on the “rumors” about John Edwards’ affair for weeks because they believed themselves too professional to investigate rumors. But when it comes to Sarah Palin and her daughter’s unplanned pregnancy they pounced instantly, turning unsubstantiated rumors and malicious conjecture into not just a “news story” but an all out attack.

In an interview with FNC’s Megyn Kelly*, the senior editor of US Weekly, Bradley Jacobs, dodges questions about the magazine’s blatant bias. He even goes so far as to claim the tabloid’s story is balanced until he’s confronted by Kelley with the story’s intentional omissions that work in Palin’s favor.

KELLY: Okay, you say — first of all, you point out her husband Todd’s DUI arrest. Do you point out that it — that that DUI arrest came 22 years ago, in 1986?

JACOBS: Of course. The DUI arrest was everywhere.

KELLY: No, you don’t. No you don’t. You don’t Bradley, that’s not in there. Do you — you mention an official, you mention so-called trooper-gate, talking about, and I’m quoting from your article, ‘an official who refused — she’s under investigation for dismissing an official who refused to fire her sister’s state trooper ex-husband.’ Do you point out the allegations that that trooper, she allegedly wanted fired, tasered his own stepson, who was only ten and made death threats against Sarah Palin’s father. Do you mention that in the article?

JACOBS: We didn’t have time to get into everything that you’ve mentioned. This story was breaking over the weekend. Everyone was talking about it and US magazine has a very distinctive voice and we cover the news. (emphasis added)

Not surprisingly, US magazine is published by Jann Wenner who has contributed $5300 to Obama’s campaign since 2007. Wenner is also the co-founder and publisher of Rolling Stone, a magazine which clearly shares Wenner’s political leanings.

Still doubt there’s a bias or effort on MSM’s part to make Palin appear troubled, incompetent and inexperienced?

Check out the NY Times headlines:

• In Political Realm, ‘Family Problem’ Emerges as Test
• Palin’s Teen Daughter Is Pregnant; New G.O.P. Tumult
• Now, the Bad News on Teenage Marriage.

From CNN:

• Biden on Palin’s speech: Style but no Substance
• Analysis: GOP Struggles With Identity on Palin’s Big Night
• Will Her Gender Sway Women to Palin?

From MSNBC:

• Before Speech, Palin Gets Some Coaching
• Bristol Palin Pregnant — Right Now
• Palin is McCain’s Boldest Gamble

From Slate:

• Name Bristol’s Baby Contest

From The Atlantic:

• What McCain Didn’t Know About Palin

If MSM can’t see their own bias, how can they presume to tell us what is truly news and what’s not? Mickey Kaus believes this is progress, that the MSM’s investigation and reporting of rumors spawned in the blogosphere is a sign that MSM’s now trying to take the lead rather than waiting for the blogosphere to break news.

Me? I think it’s a sign that MSM is increasingly out of touch, that it is increasingly creating its own windmills to tilt at. And if I’m right then come November Roger Kimball’s prediction is going to shock quite a few editors in chief:

I predict that on the morning of that fateful day in early November they are going to be like Pauline Kael the day after the 1972 election when Richard Nixon won 49 states: “How could that be?” a bewildered Kael asked. “I don’t know a single person who voted for Nixon.” The disillusionment this time will be even more bitter.

Why? Because come November I suspect a whole lot of folks on the left will be surprised to discover just how many lies the MSM’s been feeding them all this time.

UPDATE: Jae says “You’ll love this one” of Mary Mitchell’s leftie diatribe against Palin in the Sun Times: “Palin’s on the ticket because she’s a woman and she isn’t afraid to engage in the Republicans’ mean-spirited personal attacks.” Hello, Pot. Meet Kettle.

*My misspelling of Kelly’s name was corrected at the request of Xlrq, who describes her as his “second favorite law babe”.

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