NewsBusters senior editor Tim Graham appeared on the Fox Business Channel's Varney & Co. earlier this morning to review how the liberal media spun last night's debate, and what to expect over the next two weeks.
Host Stuart Varney suggested media bias could not dislodge the pro-Romney trend now evident in the polls, but Graham offered a warning: "We could see some of the most aggressive bias to date coming in the next two weeks, if they [liberal reporters] really believe Obama is losing." [Video and transcript below the jump.]
Here's the transcript of the segment, which aired at about 10:06am ET:
STUART VARNEY: Tim, was it universal, across the establishment media, that Obama won?
TIM GRAHAM: Well, yes, and it's because on some level they all look for the instant polls. And remember, now, though, that some of these instant polls, like the ones on CBS, are instant polls only of the uncommitted voters, and I guess you could argue, at this point, they're the ones that matter. And maybe the poll that would matter would be the one where you say, "Are you more likely to vote for Obama now?" "Are you more likely to vote for Romney?" Those were pretty much a wash last night.
VARNEY: Now, I'm looking within the overall instant poll numbers, I'm looking at CNN, for example. They asked people, all right, "How do you think these, the two candidates, come across in handling the job of Commander-in-Chief" -- 63% said President Obama's okay, 60% said Romney's okay. That's pretty close on handling the job of Commander-in-Chief. And when they asked women a similar question, it was split 50-50 between Romney and Obama, female support. So, I'm suggesting that if you dig within the overall numbers that first came out, you might have a different view of who won and who lost the debate.
GRAHAM: You might. But you know, again, we have a liberal media that's going to declare Obama the winner unless it's incredibly obvious that he was not the winner.
And they're taking off this morning, then, on the idea that Romney said that Obama was on an "apology tour," and we have an entire liberal media establishment that wants to say that if the President never used the word "apologized," he didn't have an apology tour. And I thought Romney's answer was a complete refutation of all these liberal journalists, when he said, "Let's quote what you actually said. You went to Cairo, you went to these capitals and you said, 'Our policy stinks, we've been dismissive, we've been a bunch of arrogant imperialists.'"So what do you call that? I call that a President apologizing for his country. But we have a bunch of journalists who are all here to try to get Obama elected, so that's what they're doing this morning. They're spinning furiously, as usual.
VARNEY: But real fast, Tim, I don't think it's working, and I don't think there's enough time left for the media to do anything about this. I just gave our people, the viewers, the latest Rasmussen 11-swing-state poll: 50 Romney, 45 Obama. Last word to you -- too late, I think, for the media to affect this?
GRAHAM: It's possible, but again, we could see some of the most aggressive bias to date coming in the next two weeks, if they really believe Obama is losing.
