There is a superb piece by Jeffrey Lord at The American Spectator today. Entitled How Carter Beat Reagan it details the arrogant mendacity of the liberal press with a special focus on the New York Times in 1980.

Throughout that campaign the NYT attempted to help Jimmy Carter by slanting its coverage of the polls in what it deemed the swing states of that era.

This reminds of one of my favorites moments of watching election night coverage.  I was just shy of 18 on November 4, 1980 and was nervous as the coverage began. After all, even though I felt Reagan was the favorite, the media said it was going to be close and the paranoid part of me worried that Carter might pull it out.

Back then I tended to watch NBC and so I was when they made the call at 8:15pm in the east.

If I live to be 95 I doubt I’ll ever forget Tom Brokaw stating how unexpected the Reagan landslide was and yet his tone of voice and facial expression didn’t convey surprise at all. I think he knew full well when the evening began that Reagan would win but continued to keep up the farcical notion that everyone thought it would be close so as to cover up the media’s disinformation efforts.

Note also that even at that late date Chancellor categorized California as “leaning”.  Reagan won California by a million and a half votes.