TV anchors shun McCain for Obama

[questionmark]

McCain eclipsed as TV anchors follow Obama's foreign trip

· Democrat to visit Middle East and Europe

· June figures show huge gains in fundraising

# Suzanne Goldenberg in Washington

# The Guardian,

# Friday July 18, 2008

Barack Obama's stock as a superstar candidate rose even further yesterday amid reports that the anchors of all three US television networks were planning to catch up with him on his first overseas trip as a presidential candidate.

The Obama camp has been besieged with requests from reporters to get aboard his plane for his swing through five countries in the Middle East and Europe and yesterday it was reported that the evening news anchors from ABC, NBC and CBS were planning to interview Obama during his trip.

The media spotlight on Obama led to grousing from his Republican rival, John McCain, whose own visit to Europe and the Middle East in March received much more low key media coverage. No anchors accompanied McCain on his tour.

McCain told a town hall meeting in Missouri yesterday that his opponent should wait until after his visit to Afghanistan and Iraq before pronouncing on his war policies.

His aides made a similar point even more sharply. "Let's drop the pretence that this is a fact-finding trip and call it what it is: the first of its kind campaign rally overseas," Jill Hazelbaker told reporters yesterday.

The sniping came as the New York Times cited research by the Tyndall Report, which monitors newscasts, which found that America's networks devoted 114 minutes to covering Obama in the last month and just 48 minutes to McCain.

Obama demonstrated his ability to dominate news coverage during the Democratic primary campaign when Hillary Clinton complained that her opponent was given kid-glove treatment by the media while she was subjected to tough questions.

The charge became the basis for a sketch on Saturday Night Live in which debate moderators fussed over Obama, offering him an extra cushion.

Obama is also dominating the paid media - or television advertising. Thanks to a superior fundraising operation, he has more ads in more states than McCain.

Full story, source: The Guardian

[Mr Honeybadger]

It's so they all can give him back-rubs and tell him how nice he smells and how handsome he is.

[Lt_Ripley]

It's so they all can give him back-rubs and tell him how nice he smells and how handsome he is.

eeewwwww I don't think McCain could pay a prostitute enough to want to do that.