Good Morning America's Jake Tapper on Sunday actually raised the issue of media bias, highlighting that Mitt Romney operatives "generally think that the media is in the tank for President Obama." [See video below. MP3 audio here.] Some of Tapper's colleagues on ABC have given Republicans good reason to believe this.
The journalist was responding to weekend GMA anchor Dan Harris's
question about whether the "stage may now be set for an Obama comeback
narrative." Tapper replied, "absolutely" and added, "So, yes, they [Team
Romney] think that, without question, the media is ready to write the
Obama comeback story."
On October 4, ABC World News anchor Diane Sawyer spent four minutes fretting about the President's poor debate performance. She allowed a mere 20 seconds on the growing Libya scandal.
From October 8 through the 11, GMA and Nightline donated 20 minutes and four segments to fawning over Michelle Obama.
Short of another terrible debate performance by the President,
Americans should probably prepare for the Obama comeback narrative to
quickly begin.
A transcript of the October 14 Good Morning America segment, which aired at 8:10am EDT, follows:
DAN HARRIS: And for much more on Tuesday's debate, let's bring in
ABC's chief White House correspondent Jake Tapper who is in Washington
filling in for George Stephanopoulos. Hey, Jake. Good morning.
JAKE TAPPER: Hey, Dan. I'm actually just senior White House correspondent. Not chief. Just so you know.
DAN HARRIS: Never get the title wrong.
TAPPER: I appreciate the promotion.
HARRIS: Okay. You know, if it was up to me, you would be president
itself. Let me ask you about last night on Saturday Night Live. They
were openly mocking Vice President Joe Biden's toothy performance in the
debate a couple days ago, showing him laughing at inappropriate
moments. Now, I imagine that President Obama is not going to take a tack
this aggressive, but is he going to ramp it up from his last debate and
do you think he'll go for the 47 percent comment?
TAPPER: I think so. Absolutely right. I mean, they are obviously very
different guys, President Obama and Vice President Biden and their
styles are very different. I do think that you will see President Obama
much more aggressive. He'll talk about the 47 percent comments that Mitt
Romney made in that secret video tape. He seemed to, in a radio
interview on Friday, he seemed to blame the fact that that didn't come
up in the debate on the media. I guess that was a suggestion that Jim
Lehrer should have brought it up. But, in any case, I think without
question, President Obama will be more aggressive.
HARRIS: Do you think there's any concern in the Romney camp that the stage may now be set for an Obama comeback narrative?
TAPPER: Absolutely. They are very sensitive to that. They generally
think that the media is in the tank for President Obama anyway. You have
heard Paul Ryan and other members of the Romney/Ryan team make that
suggestion. So, yes, they think that, without question, the media is
ready to write the Obama comeback story and it's Romney's proposition
that he's going to try to stand in the way of that by being just as
aggressive on Tuesday as he was in the last debate.
HARRIS: And how much concern are you hearing from both camps about the
fine line they have to walk in terms of attacking while in this pretty
delicate town hall-style format where regular voters don't often like
that kind of vitriol?
TAPPER: It's a good question because, the bottom line is, when you
attack people-- if I were to attack you right now, your negative ratings
would go up. People watching the show would think less of you based on
what I said. But also, mine would, too, because people would think less
of me for attacking. So, that's the delicate dance the candidates have
to do. And I think the town hall makes that a challenge for both Romney
and Obama there.
-- Scott Whitlock is the senior news analyst for the Media Research Center. Click here to follow him on Twitter.