Day 11: October 15

20 days to Election Day

Once again, due to the debate, the format of the show was significantly different.

Much like the debate itself, the show was dominated by the Everyman avatar of Joe the Plumber. The show opened with a montage of the candidates repeating his name and addressing answers to him, which was reused later at the start of an entire segment that was dedicated to him and whether McCain's use of him actually helped him at all. This was one part interpretive journalism and two parts implication of manipulation -- and all journalistic bias.

There was also heavy discussion of McCain's attacks, which Obama essentially forced him into re-making in person during the debate to attempt to defend against them. The discussion centered mostly on whether or not it was a good strategic move for Obama to press the issue and make McCain attack him -- classically interpretive journalism.

The emphasis on the gimmick of Joe the Plumber and the attacks on Obama's associations is mildly journalistically biased, because it casts the election in terms of attacks and negativity and manipulation rather than issues. However, it's not perfectly biased because, as anyone who watched the debate could affirm, that actually was the preponderance of what was discussed (or at least it seemed like it). To dwell on Joe the Plumber isn't disingenuous, it's a fairly accurate representation of what actually happened.

In addition, Olbermann continued his mocking of McCain, once making reference to a verbal slip-up McCain made when calling Sarah Palin a "bresh of freth air." However, this was somewhat downplayed compared to a typical show, and Olbermann even actually complimented McCain for his attempted powerhouse line "I'm not George Bush." However, Olbermann's assessment skewed toward McCain bashing (and political bias).

A fairly blatant case of political bias came in a sort of innocuous way, when Tom Daschle, Obama campaign co-chair, was a guest on the show. This wouldn't really have been an issue except that McCain didn't also have a representative on the program, and there was no mention made of any attempt to have one. Essentially Daschle was given an opportunity to disseminate Obama campaign talking points on the debate without any similar opportunity for the opposition. This, of course, doesn't even take into account the fact that little to no news value can come of having a card-carrying member of a campaign speak on a show -- all he or she will provide is largely useless spin, so unless the audience is really interested to know what Obama thought about his own performance, the appearance was largely useless.

All in all, the show, like the other post-debate shows, was pretty low-key. It had healthy amounts of the Olbermann standards -- journalistic bias, and comparatively more political bias. It wasn't particularly informative in terms of real news, but was less combative than a typical show, as all of the other post-debate shows have been.