The Los Angeles Times readily admits that Gov. Mitt Romney is "one of three top-tier candidates" for the GOP nomination. However, when Romney made his official announcement of his presidential bid this past week, the paper did not shower the candidate with the same love they did his Democratic counterparts. "Romney officially launches campaign," from the Wednesday, February 14, 2007, edition of the Times, was shuttled to page A17 with a moderate 747 words. Two medium-sized color photos accompanied the piece.

The Times managed to squeeze the word "conservative" into the coverage on Romney three times, noting that the former governor "hewed closely to conservative orthodoxy in his announcement speech."

Yet in several articles on Barack Obama, the Times has made only light mentions of his liberal views. Take the following articles:

"Obama raises stakes for Democrats," Wed. January 17, 2007, page A1, 1,469 words (see an image) ...

"Early on, Obama showed talent for bridging divisions," Sat. Jan. 27, 2007, page A1, 1,204 words (see an image) ...

"Occidental recalls 'Barry' Obama," Mon. Jan. 29, 2007, page B1, 1,456 words (see an image) ...

"It's official: Obama is running for president," Sun. February 11, 2007, page A17 (color photo on page A1), 1,215 words (see an image) ...

That's a whopping 5,344 words, even though I've left out more articles. Yet any references to Obama being "liberal" are practically buried. In fact, in the article reporting Obama's official announcement for president, the word "liberal" doesn't even appear at all! Read for yourself.

We've already reported several times on the LA Times' biased coverage of the 2008 campaign. See here, here, here, here, and here. This is simply more evidence on the table that the Times is clearly providing disparate coverage in favor of Democrats.

HT: Gary Hall