Obviously, he's correct about this. People have noted this fact from the beginning. There have also been polls saying this for a while. However, it's just now, finally, that people are listening. The reason people are somewhat shocked is that the left simply has no voice and cannot penetrate media coverage with facts. Because it's a favorite pastime of the MSM to claim the everything is good news for Republicans, we tend not to hear about these sorts of things.
This is a problem of intellectual honesty for the media. The could either say that more people oppose the bill than support it and leave it at that, or point out that most who oppose it do so from the left. One is good news for the GOP and one bad. One is better political theater (Repeal this bill we just passed!) and one is worse. And really, one is less intellectually honest than the other. (In describing elements of good journalism "intellectual honesty" was one of Jay Rosen's explicit criteria.) As it stands right now, we all rely on the media to make this call and get it right. But in reality, the "better political theater" or "better for GOP" models both end up with more revenues, and thus in our profit-focused media, financial incentives run counter to journalistic responsibility. This has to stop, and unfortunately, there's not much that can be done right now except constant public shaming of the media. This is why, as Atrios pointed out today, Colbert and Stewart have probably done more to elect democrats than anyone but Obama.
Incidentally, I think our law should change to require some journalistic responsibility. In fact, I think the First Amendment, properly understood, requires it. The Supreme Court got it wrong when they said this: "“A responsible press is an undoubtedly desirable goal, but press responsibility is not mandated by the Constitution, and like many other virtues it cannot be legislated”, but as law stands now, that's what we have to deal with. So when people like Yves Smith "Why is There No Political Outlet for Anger on the Left These Days?", the answer is media profit. The tea partiers are saying crazier things then anyone on the left would, and their madness indicates GOP resurgence, obviously. Recognizing that our media is so profit-centered, and that the profits run counter to the proper functioning of the media, our law has to regulate, just as with any broken market. However, the First Amendment, as interpreted today, gets in the way and hurts the very democratic values which it was designed to protect.
