NY Times Rejects McCain Op-Ed After Running Obama’s; In Other News, 24% of Americans Still Think the Media is Unbiased

Rasmussen is reporting that almost half of voters think that the media is so in love with Barack Obama that they are going to help him win the election. Almost half! From Rasmussen Reports:

The belief that reporters are trying to help Barack Obama win the fall campaign has grown by five percentage points over the past month. The latest Rasmussen Reports telephone survey found that 49% of voters believe most reporters will try to help Obama with their coverage, up from 44% a month ago.

There are actually 14% of these folks who think the media is going to help the Republican candidate. I don’t know what they base that on, nor do I understand the 24% that says the media is pretty much unbiased.

A week ago, The New York Times published an editorial by BHO, where he outlined his plan for Iraq. The Republican candidate wrote a response to it, and gave it to the Times.

They refused to run it.

An editorial written by Republican presidential hopeful McCain has been rejected by the NEW YORK TIMES — less than a week after the paper published an essay written by Obama, the DRUDGE REPORT has learned.

The paper’s decision to refuse McCain’s direct rebuttal to Obama’s ‘My Plan for Iraq’ has ignited explosive charges of media bias in top Republican circles.

‘It would be terrific to have an article from Senator McCain that mirrors Senator Obama’s piece,’ NYT Op-Ed editor David Shipley explained in an email late Friday to McCain’s staff. ‘I’m not going to be able to accept this piece as currently written.’

I wonder if those same 24% think this is unbiased. I wonder if they are thinking, “Well, there must be a good reason why they are asking John McCain to rewrite his opinion piece. After all, it’s not like they are in the tank for Obama.”

Shipley, who is on vacation this week, explained his decision not to run the editorial.

‘The Obama piece worked for me because it offered new information (it appeared before his speech); while Senator Obama discussed Senator McCain, he also went into detail about his own plans.’

Shipley continues: ‘It would be terrific to have an article from Senator McCain that mirrors Senator Obama’s piece. To that end, the article would have to articulate, in concrete terms, how Senator McCain defines victory in Iraq.’

So, the op-ed eidtor not only wants McCain to write like Obama, but now dictates the topic of McCain’s article. Still think this is unbiased? If you do, here is the Coup de grâce:

Shipley served in the Clinton Administration from 1995 until 1997 as Special Assistant to the President and Senior Presidential Speechwriter.

Unbiased? Not even remotely.