Jamison Foser of Media Matters reports on the lengths mainstream media will go to in order to support media darling John McCain:

When Bob Dole wrapped up the Republican nomination in 1996, he bumped up against the limits on campaign spending by which candidates who take public financing agree to abide. Dole’s situation was the subject of significant media attention, meaning that even if he was inclined to simply ignore the limits and hope to escape significant legal penalties, it would have been politically difficult to do so — he would have been plagued by news reports that he was breaking the law. So Dole turned to the Republican National Committee to carry him to the Republican convention, when he received his general election funding.

Dole’s predicament has a contemporary analogue — to an extent. Like Dole, John McCain has wrapped up the GOP presidential nomination well in advance of the party’s convention. Like Dole, McCain has reached the primary spending caps and may be breaking the law with each additional dollar he spends. (McCain’s campaign asserts that he is not breaking the law because he opted out of the public finance system after first opting in. Federal Election Commission chairman David Mason disagrees.)

But that’s where the similarities end. Things are a little easier if your name is John McCain — after all, who needs the RNC when you have MSNBC?

As Media Matters has repeatedly documented, the media have largely given McCain a pass on his possible law-breaking — and even continue to tout him as a paragon of campaign finance virtue. Needless to say, when McCain travels to Selma for a photo-op, the media don’t point out that he is likely breaking campaign finance law by doing so. McCain is thus free to continue campaigning full steam ahead in a way Dole was not.

But even if McCain were to slow his spending, he would hardly need the RNC to carry him — not when the media are carrying his water.

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