Politico has a great post on press bias. Their basic conclusion: political journalists face a lot of countervailing forces, and ideological bias has little if any influence in day-to-day reporting.

I think this is spot on. In 2004, for instance, the press were happy to aid and abet the right’s shameless character assassination of Kerry. They also consistently told a story of Bush winning and Kerry losing.

This is not to say that a reporter’s bias plays no role, but that doesn’t mean ideological bias is particularly present or relevant. As the Politico guys note, McCain got rolled in the press at least in part because he stabbed them in the back.

The press fawned over McCain, letting him paint a picture of himself that just isn’t true. They were his base. But he threw them under the Straight Talk Express this summer, and they never forgave him.

If anything, the national media have shown ever so slight an increase in its willingness to cut through the who-said-what dueling-spokesperson style of coverage and call ‘em as they see ‘em–relative to 2004. They’ve called both candidates out for misrepresentations in their ads, for instance, and they’ve even managed to do so without a whole lot of false equivalencies. Believe it or not, I think Jon Stewart gets at least a little bit of credit for shaming the “real” news gatherers into doing their jobs.

The real weakness is the media’s unwillingness to do on-the-ground reporting on activities away from the rallies. Campaigns are won and lost long after the rally’s over; when a candidate leaves the stage, s/he’s hoping the 20,000 attendees show up at their local field office. If your supporters show up to cheer but almost universally stay home until election day, the rally was a failure.

Why is it that fivethirtyeight.com, which didn’t even exist in 2004, has told us more about the on-the-ground enthusiasm of the two campaigns than any network or newspaper? They just got in a car and went.

It’s not that expensive, CNN! Get on this next time. A 10-minute nightly segment, “On the ground with (name) and (name),” would be fantastic TV. Find 2 photogenic young reporters, give them a (sponsoring brand of) car and a Mastercard, and tell them to get footage of on-the-ground political activism.

By the way, 538 has consistently found Obama offices overflowing with excited volunteers–and very quiet McCain offices. But covering that on TV might seem partisan…