Why is the media doing this?

Michael S. Malone notes the shame he feels at what has happened to his profesion.He doesn't mind the hardball treatment of McCain or Palin but...

No, what I object to (and I think most other Americans do as well) is the lack of equivalent hardball coverage of the other side - or worse, actively serving as attack dogs for Senators Obama and Biden. If the current polls are correct, we are about to elect as President of the United States a man who is essentially a cipher, who has left almost no paper trail, seems to have few friends (that at least will talk) and has entire years missing out of his biography. That isn’t Sen. Obama’s fault: his job is to put his best face forward. No, it is the traditional media’s fault, for it alone (unlike the alternative media) has had the resources to cover this story properly, and has systematically refused to do so.
Why, for example to quote McCain’s lawyer, haven’t we seen an interview with Sen. Obama’s grad school drug dealer - when we know all about Mrs. McCain’s addiction? Are Bill Ayers and Tony Rezko that hard to interview? All those phony voter registrations that hard to scrutinize? And why are Senator Biden’s endless gaffes almost always covered up, or rationalized, by the traditional media?

The absolute nadir (though I hate to commit to that, as we still have two weeks before the election) came with Joe the Plumber. Middle America, even when they didn’t agree with Joe, looked on in horror as the press took apart the private life of an average person who had the temerity to ask a tough question of a Presidential candidate. So much for the Standing Up for the Little Man, so much for Speaking Truth to Power, so much for Comforting the Afflicting and Afflicting the Comfortable, and all of those other catchphrases we journalists used to believe we lived by.

He comes to a rather familiar conclusion as to why the media is doing this. Why they're risking everything. Again, it's self interest, the traditional media is hemoraging viewers, readers, and advertising revenue. Thinks are looking bleak...

And then the opportunity presents itself: an attractive young candidate whose politics likely matches yours, but more important, he offers the prospect of a transformed Washington with the power to fix everything that has gone wrong in your career. With luck, this monolithic, single-party government will crush the alternative media via a revived Fairness Doctrine, re-invigorate unions by getting rid of secret votes, and just maybe, be beholden to people like you in the traditional media for getting it there.

The media is selling out their reputation, the trust in their viewers, their duty as reporters, and even free speech. All to keep their buisness alive for a few more years.

Remember.

Mark Steyn agrees.

The reason the press are going to such shameless lengths to drag Obama across the finish line is because he's their last best hope at restoring the old media environment, including a new Unfairness Doctrine for radio, and regulation of the Internet. The Obama's-already-won-give-it-up-you-GOP-losers stories are intended only to demoralize turnout. Bear in mind, that round about 5pm Eastern on Election Day, they'll be doing those stories at industrial strength, in order to clobber any Republican voters still dumb enough to think it's worth making the trip to the polls.

So the media has an ideological and finiancial incentive to help Obama as much as possible.
Nope, nothing questionable there.

Even with the most skeptical eye this Poll is just damning."By a margin of 70%-9%, Americans say most journalists want to see Obama, not John McCain, win on Nov."

Ace of Spades has more on keeping up the hope.
"Between that, and what are sure to be some massively skewed exit polls from the media around mid-afternoon, election day should be quite a ride. Personally, I'm going into election day determined to vote no matter what I hear, and I hope all of you do the same. I have no doubt there will be disinformation and attempts to make conservatives feel as though their vote doesn't matter, because The One's got it in the bag. Don't allow their propaganda to stop you from going out, casting a vote for McCain/Palin or volunteering for the campaign in some way November 4.
I know all of that's obvious, but I'm righteously pissed off about over Obama's increasingly slimy campaign and the media's outright cheerleading for the guy."