Washington, Oct 30 : Virtually realizing their defeat in the Nov 4 presidential poll, the Republican Party has trained its guns on the media alleging “bias” against the party.

Faced with dim prospects in Congress and an uphill climb to the White House on Election Day, Republicans are increasingly taking out their frustrations on the media, accusing them of tipping the scale in favor of Democrats, reported foxnews. com.

On Wednesday, the National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC) lashed out at a local Alabama television station after it withdrew a TV ad for Republican House hopeful Wayne Parker, showing images of terrorist attacks and playing a quote from Parker''s opponent Parker Griffith in which he says, “America''s greatest enemy is America and its materialism ... We have nothing to fear from radical Islam.”

According to the NRCC, the TV station manager told them the Griffith campaign complained to them that the ad was unfair, and the station decided to pull the ad without notifying the Parker campaign, added the report.

Studies have shown that media coverage had consistently favored Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama over his Republican rival John McCain during the presidential campaign.

According to the Pew Research Center''s Project for Excellence in Journalism, Republican presidential nominee McCain has attracted “far more unfavorable coverage” than his Democratic rival and presidential favourite Barack Obama in the six weeks following the conventions.

The Pew study found that during that period, unfavorable stories about the Republican nominee outweighed those about the Democratic nominee by more than 3-to-1.

Separately, a study from the Center for Media and Public Affairs even kept a tally of jokes told about the presidential candidates on the “Late Show With David Letterman” and the “Tonight Show” with Jay Leno, and found they hammered Republicans over Democrats by a margin of 7-to-1.

Some say it’s all in good fun, but others have taken an objection to it. “The election results aren’t in yet, but there is one set of surveys with an unmistakable conclusion. Everyone should be forced to admit that the publicists formerly known as the ‘news’ media have worked themselves to the bone this year to elect Barack Obama,” Brent Bozell, president of the conservative Media Research Center, wrote in a column Wednesday. (ANI)