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Pardon me, I don't mean to be a bother, but it just happened again.

On Thursday, April 22, Rasmussen Reports released its most recent poll results on the Maryland governor's race. The voter survey was highly enlightening in two respects. First, for its content and second, for its treatment by The Washington Post and The Baltimore Sun.

First, the content. Rasmussen's survey of 500 likely voters conducted on April 20 showed former Gov. Bob Ehrlich closing to within three points of incumbent Gov. Martin O'Malley (47 percent to 44 percent). This was a significant change from Rasmussen's Feb. 23 poll when the gap was six points (49 percent to 43 percent).

Second, the suppression. When neither The Post nor The Sun wrote about the Rasmussen Poll in their Thursday editions, I figured the poll was released after Thursday's deadline but would surely appear Friday. However, when I opened Friday's newspapers, no poll. Instead, The Sun ran a feel-good account of O'Malley installing solar panels atop a Howard County home in tribute to Earth Day. The Post was silent.

I guessed that maybe the political reporters were saving the poll results for their weekend updates of the governor's race. But on both Saturday and Sunday, nothing.

Finally, on Monday, The Post's John Wagner wrote a long piece on Ehrlich spiked with the usual anti-Ehrlich barbs and Democratic talking points. Wagner's theme: Ehrlich looks and sounds the same as four years ago, so how can he expect to win? In support of his theme, Wagner trotted out the usual "experts," liberal academics and Democrats whose quotes confirmed Wagner. Then Wagner cited "murmurs in Maryland political circles" that Ehrlich doesn't have "the fire in the belly needed to win."

In other words, it was just another Washington Post hit job by a political partisan posing as a news reporter. But surely, even someone as biased as Wagner couldn't ignore the Rasmussen Poll as a balancer? Alas, Monday's article never mentioned the poll. I guess it wasn't a Democratic talking point.

Then, on Tuesday, the same thing happened in The Sun. Michael Dresser wrote a long preview of O'Malley's campaign kickoff while also ignoring the Rasmussen Poll.

Well, is it possible that the newspaper reporters somehow overlooked the Rasmussen Poll? Unlikely, since most Baltimore and Washington TV stations aired the poll as a news story as did radio (WBAL, WTOP), talk radio and a host of political blogs ("New Rasmussen Poll: O'Malley and Ehrlich In Dead Heat" reported Maryland Politics Watch).

Unless the newspaper reporters went temporarily deaf, dumb and blind, they were fully aware of the poll. They and their editors simply chose to suppress it.

Conversely, both newspapers print every anti-Ehrlich salvo, no matter how baseless, fired by the State Democratic Party. On the day before The Rasmussen Poll, The Sun ran, "Democrats Say Ehrlich Show Amounts to Campaign Gift," confronting the burning question of Ehrlich's talk radio show. Poll results aren't important, but this crap is?

Media bias is an art form, the skillful use of nuances, code words and distortions so that a supposedly objective "news story" reflects the reporter's personal views — manipulating the "facts" to help the favored and hurt the unfavored.

Here's a small example: When asked by reporters if he'd vow not to raise taxes next year, O'Malley tap-danced, "It's my intent to not. It's my great hope not to. I think it's probably irresponsible, especially in time of war, to make that pledge."

Great example of political evasion. But here's how The Post reported it: "O'Malley has said he has no intention of raising taxes next year." Great example of dishonest reporting.

Or compare the difference in how Post reporters treated Ehrlich and O'Malley's campaign kickoffs.

Writing about Ehrlich's kickoff, The Post went into "truth squad" mode. Every Ehrlich statement was rebutted by an O'Malley comment undercutting Ehrlich and leaving O'Malley with the final word. Then, as a sidebar, The Post "truth squad" printed a "Tale of Two Administrations" favoring O'Malley by using Democratic talking points as criteria to compare the two administrations.

However, at O'Malley's kickoff, The Post's truth squad didn't show up. Instead, the reporters dutifully printed O'Malley's claims with no rebuttals, no GOP talking points and no sidebar comparisons.

No Post reporter questioned O'Malley's "tuition freeze" — his claim that after Ehrlich raised college tuitions 42 percent, O'Malley froze them for four years. No Post reporter pointed out that, to do so, O'Malley slashed community college and non-public college funding (resulting in big tuition increases), increased taxes $1.4 billion a year and gave the state universities an extra $25 million annually until, this year, when the Democratic legislature finally put an end to his political grandstanding. This month, O'Malley's tuition freeze thawed under a 3 percent increase, but neither O'Malley nor The Post mentioned it.

Last week's Rasmussen Poll is a fascinating snapshot of Maryland voter's mood, full of interesting data about Obama, the health care bill, offshore drilling and anti-incumbent anger.

Too bad The Post and The Sun decided that you shouldn't see it. Maybe you can get a copy from an objective, unbiased blog.

Blair Lee is CEO of the Lee Development Group in Silver Spring and a regular commentator for WBAL radio. His column appears Fridays in The Gazette. His e-mail address is blair@leedg.com.