US Elections: Mccain Accuses Media of Favourable Bias Toward Obama

The Republican presidential hopeful John McCain let his frustration with the US media boil over today for its saturation coverage of Barack Obama's visit to the Middle East and Europe.

McCain, upset over the extent to which his campaign has been eclipsed, launched a new video on the internet titled Obama Love, with quotes from television anchors and other journalists that he regards as evidence of bias.

The launch of the video came the day after McCain protested over what he saw as another sign of bias, a rejection of a comment article on Iraq he submitted to the New York Times.

It is a turnaround for McCain, who established a reputation for good and open relations with the press during his unsuccessful run for the Republican nomination in 2000 and again during this year's primaries contest. But since Obama won the Democratic nomination last month, his campaign team has complained repeatedly the US media is behaving as if the election is a foregone conclusion in favor of Obama.

RealClearPolitics, which tracks all the main opinion polls and publishes an average, shows McCain is only slightly behind Obama, 46% to 41%.

McCain is seeking a way to wrest the headlines back from Obama and there is some media speculation that he could announce his choice of vice-president this week. He is due to visit New Orleans on Thursday, an unusual location given that Louisiana is not a battlefield state, and that could point to Bobby Jindal, the governor of the state, whose relative youth - he is 37 - and Asian Indian background could be a counter to Obama.

McCain's Louisiana visit coincides with the centerpiece of Obama's overseas visit, a speech in Berlin.

The columnist Robert Novak, who has good contacts among Republicans, said a decision on vice-president would be made this week. But McCain's campaign team refused to confirm or deny it but acknowledged that the shortlist had been narrowed and a decision could be made quickly.

McCain's defeated opponent in the battle for the Republican nomination, Mitt Romney, is also in the frame, even though McCain has been widely reported to have little personal rapport with him.Approached by a group of journalists planning to ask him about a vice-presidential announcement, McCain responded playfully: "What do you want you little jerks?"

In the row with the New York Times, McCain had sent in his article in response to one by Obama last week about Iraq. When the New York Times opted against publication, his campaign team leaked the decision to a website, the Drudge Report.

Rupert Murdoch's New York Post published the article in full today and carried an editorial accusing the New York Times of bias: "The New York Times is showing its true colour again (ie cobalt blue): Just days after running an essay by Barack Obama slamming John McCain's Iraq policy proposals, the paper summarily nixed the Arizona senator's rejoinder."

The New York Times said it had not rejected the article, only asked for the senator to rewrite it to "articulate in concrete terms how Senator McCain defines victory in Iraq". McCain's team said it would not be resubmitting the article.

While Obama was in Jordan today before heading to Israel and the West Bank tomorrow and Europe later in the week, McCain was addressing a town hall meeting in Rochester, New Hampshire, today and is scheduled to speak tomorrow at another town hall meeting in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania.

The New Hampshire Union Leader reported today there was only one reporter on the tarmac when McCain touched down in the state on Monday night in contrast with the enormous media pack accompanying Obama. Journalists who won prized places on his 757, dubbed Obama One and painted with his slogan, Change we can believe in, flew from Chicago to join him in Amman today and will accompany him on the remainder of the trip. They are being reinforced by journalists traveling independently.

Obama has the anchors from the main television networks traveling with them and has a series of interviews set up with them throughout his trip, ensuring lots of exposure back in the US.

McCain's campaign team, in a conference call with reporters, today criticized Obama for acknowledging during a press conference in Amman - carried live for 45 minutes by most of the US networks - that he is at odds with the US commander in Iraq, general David Petraeus, over Obama's proposed pull-out of US troops. Obama said Petraeus wanted to retain flexibility but Obama insisted that, as president, he would have to take a global view of priorities.

McCain's team said Obama should not presume to know better than the general who had fought a successful war.