Bachmann Says CBS News E-Mail Shows Bias

Well, perhaps the MFM isn't blowing off Bachmann after all.

At New York Times, "A Finger Slips, and the Bachmann Camp Pounces":

It is not exactly a state secret that the news media tend to lavish more coverage on perceived front-runners in presidential campaigns.

But CBS News’s political director, John Dickerson, made the mistake of saying basically that in an e-mail and accidentally sending it to the campaign of Representative Michele Bachmann.

In a slip of the finger that quickly ignited a furor among Mrs. Bachmann’s supporters, Mr. Dickerson e-mailed his colleagues that he would prefer to “get someone else” other than the Minnesota congresswoman for an online show after the CBS News/National Journal debate on Saturday night. The e-mail said that Mrs. Bachmann was “not going to get many questions” in the debate and that “she’s nearly off the charts” — an apparent reference to her low standing in many polls.

The problem was that Mrs. Bachmann’s communications director was copied in on the e-mail, and Mr. Dickerson hit “reply to all.” Oops.

The incident highlighted the tricky calculus media organizations must engage in when deciding which candidates to pay attention to, and which not, as they factor in criteria like standing in the polls, fund-raising and more nebulous things like momentum.

Aides to Mrs. Bachmann, who is polling in the single digits, seized on the e-mail as evidence of liberal bias by CBS News and used the episode to rally its supporters against a favorite Republican foe: the mainstream media.

Is Bachmann whining? Althouse claimed she was acting like a progressive. Actually, it see it more like a gimme. She got an opening from the blasted e-mail and she took it. And it's buying her some consideration at the New York Times, of all places, not to mention the Los Angeles Times, "Michele Bachmann sees bias in stray email."