Howard Kurtz today takes a macrocosmic—literally, macrocosmic—view of the media’s post-Tuesday treatment of the Democrats’ Epic Battle for Cosmic Domina—er, Nomination:
For the moment, there seem to be two separate media universes out there.
In the mainstream print galaxy, Hillary’s “options” are “dwindling,” her “path” to the nomination is “narrowing,” the “math” is “challenging,” Obama is drawing “closer” to the prize.
On MSNBC, the morning shows and the blogosphere, it’s game, set, match. The race is finis, the last rites are being administered, and the debate is about Obama’s chances against McCain.
It’s a fascinating case study: Do the remnants of the MSM that are still treating this as a semi-competitive race believe that Clinton has a serious shot at the nomination, but feel bound by the rule of objectivity not to say so?
Or are the pundits going out on a limb, prematurely writing off Clinton as they have done several times before?
I’d say it’s both. Talk about worlds colliding.
Megan Garber is an assistant editor at the Nieman Journalism Lab at Harvard University. She was formerly a CJR staff writer.