On Monday 43 different Catholic institutions filed 12 separate lawsuits against Obama's HHS mandate requiring them to fund contraception, sterilization, and chemical abortions.

The story has even greater impact than it appears at first glance because one of the institutions suing Obama is the University of Notre Dame, the same university that was derided by many Catholics for having Obama as a commencement speaker.

In an election year where Obama needs to retain the Catholic vote it would seem newsworthy that the most famous Catholic college in America has moved from giving the President an honorary degree to suing him.

Yet as of Wednesday morning the network nightly news coverage has totaled 19 seconds.

ABS and NBC haven't mentioned the lawsuits and CBS devoted 19 seconds to the issue. This during what is clearly a slow news cycle since ABC devoted time to sleep apnea--an important but not time critical issue-- and Katie Couric's assessment that Queen Elizabeth's hat was "lovely".

Can anyone imagine the same level of network coverage if 43 Black institutions, such as the NAACP and Tuskegee University, filed 12 lawsuits on the same day against the Bush administration?

This obvious example of spiking a story that doesn't fit in with the conventional liberal line provides a great teachable moment.

For years conservatives have complained about media bias; especially in the network news shows.  But generally speaking "moderates" don't listen because the issue has been framed around how to interpret the presentation of information by the network news--lots of poor people suffering but no coverage of welfare cheats for example.

But in this case it's clear that network news shows are just not covering the issue.  That's a very different thing.

Conservatives can use this example to show "moderates" why they can't trust the network news.  There's no need to explain liberal dog whistles or go into detail about how various stories are spun. 

Instead it's very simple. Major news event occurred;  network news ignored it because they didn't like it. End of story in more ways than one.

If "moderates" really do want to know what's going on in America this is positive proof that they need to go beyond the network news to stay informed.

Getting good people who vote Democrat because they're too busy living life to be immersed in politics to look to sources other than the nightly network news will generate a sudden increase in conservative voters. 

"Moderates" who vote for liberal Democrats tend to do so because they hear a 30 second sound bite that sounds compelling; often on the nightly network news.  Expose those same people to the truth and they may change their minds.

Take this opportunity to lead your "moderate" friends to the water of political truth and maybe they'll take a drink.

You can find more of tom's madness at http://obvioustalk.blogspot.com