Is MSNBC more biased than FoxNews?

I've been seeing this story a good deal over the past few days, usually with a catchy title, such as Pew: MSNBC's Bias Far Worse Than Fox.  The title of this article implies that the Pew Research Poll, entitled Winning the Media Campaign 2012, concludes that MSNBC is more biased (in favor of Obama over Romney, in case you've not been paying attention) than Fox.  Indeed, Warner Todd Huston, the author of the article claims that "this Pew study proves beyond a shadow of a doubt that there isn’t a single unbiased minute on MSNBC while Fox News appears to be far more balanced by comparison".  It is important to note that Pew makes no such claim whatsoever in its report.  That does not mean that one cannot draw such a conclusion, however.  Polls report trends and pundits and commentators interpret them.  However, the Pew poll primarily reports of amount of coverage.  This is certainly interesting, but does not on its own, prove anything about bias.

It is possible that MSNBC is biased, and Huston would not be the first to make such a claim, no doubt.  What is missing, however, is actual content.  That is to say, if Romney and Obama had made an equal number of gaffes during the campaign, if they had committed the exact same amount of deceit over the last weeks, then one should expect that two equally unbiased news outlets would report negatively regarding each candidate the exact same amount.  If there has been some difference between the two candidates, one should expect some discrepancy.  Without some fact checking, all that one can conclude is that this campaign has been excessively negative--and if you need a Pew poll to tell you that your name must be Rip Van Winkle.