Sunday, November 05, 2006

Is it news or MSM?

Presented below are the headline and some quotes from a story in the Washington Post this morning, and one wonders why the Post is accused of being slightly partisan.

Headline - Democrats, on the Offensive, Could Gain Both Houses

Lead Paragraphs -In the battle for the House, Democrats appear almost certain to pick up more than the 15 seats needed to regain the majority. Republicans virtually concede 10 seats, and a split of the 30 tossup races would add an additional 15 to the Democratic column.

The Senate poses a tougher challenge for Democrats, who need to gain six seats to take control of that chamber. A three-seat gain is almost assured, but they would have to find the other three seats from four states considered to have tossup races -- Virginia, Tennessee, Missouri and Montana.

But later in the story we find that - A new Washington Post-ABC News poll shows some narrowing in the Democratic advantage in House races. The survey gives the Democrats a six-percentage-point lead nationally among likely voters asked which party they prefer for Congress. It was 14 points two weeks ago, but this remains a larger advantage than they have had in recent midterm elections.

Were I to have written the story I might have highlighted the closing of several key races. Who knows whether this trend is real? But it is annoying to have a major newspaper so blatantly ignore the real lead of the story. I guess that is part of the reason why so many papers are seeing declining circulation.

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