My colleague Rich Noyes reports that in 2008, once again, the Big Three networks have gone around scorning ugly “attack ads,” and finding that the vast majority of those are being spread like a virus by the Republicans:

MRC intern Lyndsi Thomas went over all 213 broadcast morning and evening news stories that discussed the candidates’ ads from the end of the primaries (June 4) through October 21. The results show the networks aired nearly three times as many stories criticizing McCain’s ads (84) as hitting Obama’s (32).

The networks challenged McCain’s ads as false or distorted three times more often than they disputed Obama’s commercials. A total of 18 stories suggested inaccuracies with one or more campaign commercials, with reporters challenging a total of 18 McCain ads as false, compared to just six Obama ads. CBS aired five of the six segments suggesting Obama’s ads were misleading voters, almost always pairing a complaint about Obama with a gripe about McCain’s ads.

Apart from complaints about the accuracy of campaign ads, network reporters often disdained the negative tone of ads. Again, McCain was on the receiving end of nearly three times as many stories scolding his supposed negativity (66) as Obama (26). But according to the Wisconsin Advertising Project’s review of ads from June 4 to October 4, and taking into account ads that include both positive and negative messages, “the tone of the McCain and Obama campaigns has been absolutely identical.”

CBS aired six times more stories complaining about the tone of McCain’s ads (19 stories, compared to three about Obama’s), while ABC and NBC both spent about twice as much time scolding McCain.

Perhaps the most maddening thing about network television scorn for “attack ads” is its utter obliviousness to its own hatchet jobs. There are no denunciations of “attack newscasts.”