Former Mercury News reporter Michael S. Malone, now an ABCNews.com columnist, writes that he is embarrassed to tell people that he is a journalist these days.

The sheer bias in the print and television coverage of this campaign is not just bewildering, but appalling. And over the last few months I’ve found myself shaking my head at the obvious one-sided reporting, to actually shouting at the screen of my television and my laptop computer. …

Now, don’t get me wrong. I’m not one of those people who think the media has been too hard on, say, Gov. Palin, by rushing reportorial SWAT teams to Alaska to rifle through her garbage. This is the Big Leagues, and if she wants to suit up and take the field, then Gov. Palin better be ready to play …

No, what I object to (and I think most other Americans do as well) is the lack of equivalent hardball coverage of the other side — or worse, actively serving as attack dogs for Senators Obama and Biden.

Malone, a fourth-generation newspaperman, is also shocked by the declining standards in the news business, such as how journalists on the national level face no consequences after they’re caught stealing or faking stories. Or how opinion is now finding its way into news columns. And perhaps his biggest objection is how the traditional media is refusing to cover both sides of the election story.

Why, for example, to quote the lawyer for Republican presidential nominee Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., haven’t we seen an interview with Sen. Obama’s grad school drug dealer — when we know all about Mrs. McCain’s addiction? Are Bill Ayers and Tony Rezko that hard to interview? All those phony voter registrations that hard to scrutinize? And why are Sen. Biden’s endless gaffes almost always covered up, or rationalized, by the traditional media?

(Photo credit: Santa Clara University Web site)