Andrew Malcolm provides a biting finale to his report on the imbalance of late-night television comics when it comes to the presidential election.  A study coming out today shows that the major late-night shows make a habit of skewering John McCain but give a pass to Barack Obama.  Obama only got ridiculed 169 times by the broadcast network shows, while McCain was the butt of the joke almost twice as often — 328 times.  Interestingly, the most balanced presentation came from Comedy Central, which combined the Daily Show and Colbert Report to come within six jokes of a dead heat, McCain slightly ahead … which coincidentally resembles the latest polls.

Malcolm fires his own zinger at the networks:

The study did not explore why Obama got off so lightly on the network shows from New York and Burbank. So we’ll all just have to guess: Probably out of simple respect for Obama’s long public service.

Perhaps they feel that satirizing The One is … above their pay grade?

No one who pays any attention to Hollywood’s predilection for hard-Left demagogues will find themselves surprised to see these results.  I’m surprised to see Jon Stewart being the most balanced comic in late-night television.  Shouldn’t that development be accompanied by locusts or frogs?