Newspaper coverage in Portland for Bush/Kerry appearance

[gratuitous]

That darned librul media! Sure, John Kerry drew a crowd of 50,000 in the middle of a work day, but he got the good place to appear. Poor George Bush had to settle for a little school and had a crowd of 2,300, but the Portland Oregonian did its level best to make the two events appear comparable.

The top headline, of course, went to Hurricane Charley, an issue of vital importance here in Oregon. I'm sure that all of the flooding that we experienced last winter was headline news in Miami. Right?

Anyway, the secondary headline, just above the fold is "Political rivals play to crowds" with side-by-side photos from each rally. Stupidhead and Stepford, basking in the adulation of 2,300 hand-picked supporters; the next president and first lady, standing before a heueueuge crowd. But on a first look, the two appearances appear totally comparable. A more realistic comparison would have been to give Kerry a six-column photo with an inset of Stupidhead at approximately 1/20 the size, to represent the respective audiences each man spoke before.

But the Oregonian has been flat-out dishonest for years. I don't expect anything different from them anymore.

Does anyone have a report on the local television coverage? And a side question to any reporters or news directors: Which candidate provided you the more compelling footage, and the better visuals for your newscast?