The specter of a liberal media bias sprang forth into popularculture with Spiro Agnew's paranoid alliterative defense of theVietnam War back in 1969.

(This origin story, of course, skips past the blatant,muckraking primordial ooze from which the entire daily newspaperbusiness emerged in this country back in the early 1900s. So, inthat sense, the chicken came first: with the media borne out ofbias.)

I've spoken at length in print, online and in person about“media bias,” and how overblown I think that liberal bogeymanis.

For starters, what passes for the media in this country hasnever been more fragmented, discordant, or for that matter,democratic. Anyone can get online—whether it's behind a keyboard orin front of a webcam—and make their voice heard. The playingfield's been so leveled that it's kind of hard to even conceive ofthis single, monolithic, big brother-type of media entity tellingus all how to think and feel anymore.

That's not to say there isn't bias out there. The mainstreammedia—for lack of a better identifier—certainly hasn't taken tocandidate Mitt Romney. Whether it's his wealth, his lack of cool orhis stiffness, reporters seem to be attuned to his every stumble.The guy just can't catch a break. 

(Anyone remember the primaries? The press seemed to covereveryone but Romney until they no longer a choice).

As a better blogger than me pointed out recently, he's thiselection cycle's John Kerry. Or Al Gore. The bumbling loser. Thewooden cut-out candidate. And now that the narrative is set, themore Romney tries to shake it, the more the press will typecast himto fit that role. And now every little misstep will beoverblown.

Did Al Gore really say he invented the Internet? No. And I'mcertain Romney knows why airplane windows don't open. It's notfair, but it's where we are in the campaign.

It bears clarifying: The media's biased, but not in the samevoice or in the same ways. With this election, I think they'restill starry-eyed (if a little disappointed) over Obama and theyjust don't like Romney as a person, for whatever reason.

And reporting a story is not the same as advocating it. We—atleast those of us here—don't have the luxury of reporting just thegood news. Or the bad. If the emperor has no clothes, well, that'swhat we have to tell you. At least when it's a newsstory. 

But in our blogs or columns, we can wonder where the clotheswent, what they looked like and why their absence will probablyforce health care costs up again.