[via Think Progress]

Prior to and following the vice-presidential debates, conservatives on Fox News purported that the “mainstream media” has a preference for an Obama presidency. Bill Kristol, Kirsten Powers, and Bernard Goldberg all agreed in the “obvious fact” of the “transparent agenda” of liberal media bias. Watch it:

These claims fly in the face of reality. The multinational corporations that run the mainstream media — GE (NBC), Time Warner (CNN), Walt Disney (ABC), News Corporation (FOX), and Viacom (CBS) — stand to benefit hugely under a McCain presidency. The centerpiece of Sen. McCain’s economic plan — actually, the whole plan — is large tax cuts for corporations. It would deliver $1.44 billion in tax cuts to the five largest media companies, according to an analysis by the Center for American Progress Action Fund.

These giveaways are just one part of McCain’s doubling of the Bush tax cuts for corporations and the wealthy which would create the largest deficits in 25 years and drive the United States into the deepest deficits since World War II. McCain and Palin have promised that the $700 billion bailout would not threaten these tax cuts.

Transcript:

KRISTOL: Let me clue you in on something. The mainstream media wants Barack Obama to be the next president of the United States.

I’m very happy about the Gwen Ifill kerfuffle, because it has just exposed the obvious fact the media has never been more biased. They want Obama to win. They want McCain to lose. They hate Sarah Palin. I have never seen anything like it before.

And now they are trying to demoralize conservatives by pretending the race is over.

HUME: I want to hear Kirsten on this–your thoughts?

POWERS: I actually agree with what you just said. They are at the worst place they have ever been, the media. It is a transparent agenda, there is no doubt about that.

…

GOLDBERG: Well, look. Look. I’m not going to break any news here by telling you this so-called mainstream media has a rooting interest in, in Barack Obama. So if it’s … I’m sorry, I know Steve, you’ve been in a coma the past year, and you didn’t know that, but it’s true.