I think you're permitting your enthusiasm to color your perceptions a bit. Read my summary of the afternoon cbs radio newsblurb here
The overall impression that I got was that the media was moderately pro-Arnold. I guess that this is (1) because Arnold is very socially liberal, (2) because he's a familiar public icon and therefore relatively easy to cover in a journalistic sense, and (3) because he is vague enough on the fiscal aspects of his campaign that journalists don't get too concerned that anything significant will change there either under an Arnold administration (after all, Davis and the Democrats traditionally water down their statements, all the while maintaining or planning to increase the spending level to the point that it is simply taken for granted by the media no matter what the (D) crowd professes).
Again the thing that most impressed me about today's news coverage was how often McClintock's name came up. I think fear is the worst when facing the unknown. McClintock's platform is the most detailed of all the major remaining candidates as far as I can tell. Nevertheless, his platform is almost never described or even alluded to in the national media. Such was the case today on radio. Arnold was the guy invariably given the sound bites and the (mild, which equals favorable in this context) platform coverage. After all of Arnold's professed Republicanism of the previous days, I would normally have expected Arnold to have been vilified as an arch-villain in the normal media style, but this did not occur. Altogether and reading between the lines, it seems apparent to me that the media are scared sh*tless of some event interfering with the apparent frontrunner Arnold from taking the brass ring, and instead permitting McClintock to get out front. Should that happen, the media would be unable to avoid giving his platform major league, detailed coverage, and Wall Street reaction to it.
There is where the media weak spot is, being forced to publicize Tom's platform to any significant degree. At that point, a permanent upset would occur and the media would not be able to "gate" Tom's message any more.
I think one of the reasons Tom has been hanging in there so long is because the last "debate" will permit Tom (for a change) to speak directly to the people in a manner that puts a spotlight on any differences between him and Arnold.
Techniques in the media used for covering Tom and Arnold are vastly different in practice. Arnold auto-filters and waters down his spoonfed message and gets a pass by the media. Tom's serious and effective platform always is omitted. Follow the evidence and find out where the real fear is with the media!