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Northwest Airlines Supporting McCain?

By Captain Cauliflower - August 22, 2008, 10:24AM

Get this littany of bias by Northwest Airlines:

1) If you've taken a flight on Northwest Airlines in August you may have noticed the full cover of their in-flight magazine, World Traveler, greets you with the trio of Norm Coleman, John McCain, and Tim Pawlenty with the headline "The Republican's Are Coming!" The full-length photo identifies "Presidential candidate John McCain is flanked by Sen. Norm Coleman, R-Minn., and Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty." Meanwhile Barack Obama gets a less than two inch inset headshot photo which fails to mention that he is a senator, also a Presidential candidate, oh, yeah, and that his name is Barack Obama.

2) Then there's the message from NWA President & CEO Doug Streland which reminds us that his airline is the official airline of the Republican convention. He lamely states further "We will also be carrying thousands of people this month to the Democratic National Convention." To be fair, he gives a fairly rational plea for a new energy policy.

3) Inside the magazine, the splashy feature article on the Republican convention includes the cover photo of the three men again along with brief descriptions of them, including "fun facts."

4) An article called "Denver: Eat, Sleep, Play," is more or or less a travel guide for the city, and includes a 4 inch photo of Obama captioned "Presumptive Democratic nominee Barack Obama." He gets no bio or "fun facts."

So, my questions are basic: Why is John McCain a "Presidential candidate" and Barack Obama just a "Presumptive Democratic nominee?" Why is Obama uncaptioned on the cover? Why use the word "flanked" rather than "appears with" or just their names as in the second Obama photo. Why do the Republicans get bios and Obama nothing? Why is part of my NWA airfare going to support the Republican Party and John McCain?