I don't know about that. I'm not exactly sure just how much the media managed to deliver to Kerry, whether his showing was the peak end of that "15%" or if the media did indeed fail to deliver the full 15% which might have put him over the top. But I think it's safe to say that if the media hadn't been trumpeting only the bad things about the war and the economy, hadn't helped to spread the draft lie and flu vaccine "crisis," hadn't had 60%+ negative coverage of Bush in general, Kerry would have lost by more.
The media delivered the large population centers for Kerry. That's all. Those people would have voted for him whether he was a used condom missing a bananna or what:)
We're not the smartest people in the world but when a faction overplays their hand like the msm did, they descend to what I call the level of the water cooler joke. This isn't bad if you're Jerry Seinfeld, but if you're Dan Rather it's poison. First Kerry became a WCJ, then Rather, then the media as a whole. Brokaw was lucky to get out when he did.
One question I've always had: Why did Brokaw sound drunk, a stroke victim, or like he had a speech impediment only when he was on the news? He sounded normal otherwise.