A couple of months ago I wrote about Sarah Palin's complaints that during the 2008 election, her opponent at the time, Barack Obama, went unvetted by the media and that no one ever bothered to ask any questions about his background and childhood. It's a ridiculous argument -- the two campaigns were thoroughly scrutinized by the media (they even tracked down Obama's childhood friends in Indonesia), and in the end Palin's team lost. Badly. So her reaction is to blame the media and pretend that they gave a pass to the dangerous radical Obama, who America would have rejected had they only known a little more about Bill Ayers or Jeremiah Wright.

It's not a surprising argument -- one of the pillars of modern conservatism is bashing the “liberal” media. Some have even made a career of it, like Media Research Center president Brent Bozell, who was on Fox & Friends this morning to echo Palin's complaint of the media's alleged dereliction of duty in covering candidate Barack Obama.

Here's the transcript:

BOZELL: If you look back at the coverage of 2008, of this president, it was start to finish, the politics of bias by omission where they simply refused to cover anything that was negative about this man. As a result, he became every man. He became everything that I, Joe Public, wanted in a person, change, hope. No one knew what that meant. You created a mythology of this man because you didn't know who this man was. And in all the coverage, no one told you about his position on taxes. No one told you about his position on spending. You certainly didn't know that TARP was around the corner and that the bailouts were around the corner and the stimulus package was around the corner, that the takeover of the auto industry was around the corner, none of these things were discussed in the campaign. So she's absolutely right. If the American people had known what they were getting, you wonder if he ever would have been elected.

Let's unpack this, bit by bit.

“They simply refused to cover anything that was negative about this man.” Is that so? Perhaps he's forgotten that the Reverend Wright tapes -- which first broke on ABC News -- ran on an endless loop on cable news and were covered extensively by every major newspaper.

“No one told you about his position on taxes.” Does Bozell really think we're so stupid as to believe that a person could be elected president without any reporting on their position on taxation? From the June 10, 2008, New York Times: “Mr. Obama has said in the past that he would allow the tax cuts enacted in the Bush administration to expire and impose higher taxes on some investment income.”

“No one told you about his position on spending.” Again, only a committed liar or hopelessly ignorant person would claim that the media refused to report on a presidential candidate's position on spending. From the September 15, 2008, Washington Post: “Education has been largely a back-burner issue in a campaign dominated by rising oil prices, a slumping economy and the Iraq war, but McCain and Obama have given clues on key school issues. Obama wants $18 billion in new federal spending, a major increase.” From the September 10, 2008, Washington Post: “Economic advisers to the presidential campaigns said the big deficits would do little to change their plans for cutting taxes or, in Obama's case, for increasing spending on priorities such as health care and education.”

“You certainly didn't know that TARP was around the corner.” TARP was signed into law by George W. Bush. I'm not sure what else I need to say about that.

"...and the stimulus package was around the corner, that the takeover of the auto industry was around the corner." Again, the auto industry bailout was passed by George W. Bush. As for the stimulus, from the October 10, 2008, New York Times: “Senator Barack Obama, the Democratic presidential candidate, now supports a stimulus plan similar to the one the Congressional Democratic leadership is seriously considering. 'Mr. Obama has been calling for six months for a demand-side fiscal stimulus,' said Jason Furman, the candidate's economic policy director.” From the September 6, 2008, New York Times: “The Obama camp urged Congress to enact the $50 billion stimulus package that the senator recently proposed. Most of the money would go to states and cities, 'so they don't have to cut back on health care and education and can rebuild roads and schools,' Mr. Obama said in a statement.”

“If the American people had known what they were getting, you wonder if he ever would have been elected.” They did know, because the media reported on all of it, and Obama was still elected.

But it's easier to blame someone else for your failures, so you just keep on playing make believe, Bozell. At least Sarah Palin will appreciate it.