Politics in the media

When I hear people complain about the political coverage being biased, I am amused. The goal of all media is to increase their reader/viewer-ship numbers as this translates into increased revenues (remember Watergates' "deepthroat"s' advice: "just follow the money"). Balanced, fair reporting is of little interest to them if it conflilcts with goal #1 above. Thus, the view that McCain is being "given a pass" by the media is not surprising. With the lead Obama has currently, the race will be less interesting (translation: less likely to lead to reader/viewer/ship = less $) and the media will be motivated to make the race tighter by reporting whatever is likely to achieve goal #1. Additionally, "news items" will involve more and more peripheral, gossipy items (remember lapel flagpin-gate, who is "flip-flopping", a dastardly demonstration of a lack of convictions, or a willingness to change their minds in the light of new data depending on whether you support the flip-reconsiderer or not) to rope viewers in even if it detracts from the candidates being required to address the issues; you know, the things that will actually impact the quality of Americans' lives. Sadly, I see no way to deter the media from pursuing and producing tight races since that would involve taking money out of the process.