To be precise, I think the MSM is totally in the tank for the social welfare state. Reading their articles and editorials, one is struck with and endless series of anecdotal stories about the nobility "losers in life's lottery", and an endless attempt to paint those who work and save as greedy and cruel.
Much of this is certainly driven by the educational backgrounds of journalists, themselves, but I think many of them would actually be surprised and insulted if one accused them of being in the tank for the Democrats. They just see the expansion of the welfare state as such a Holy Crusade that anyone who voices the slightest opposition to it is a heretic who must be burned at the stake. Thus a fascist like Obama slips right by them without any critical inquiry, because he said the right things about expanding public welfare and McCain and especially Palin dared to insult the Holy Mother Church of the Welfare State.
Yours is one of the best posts I have read this year.