The Washington Post’s Deborah Howell admitted in a column published Saturday that the coverage of the campaign by the Post was biased.

“The Post provided a lot of good campaign coverage, but readers have been consistently critical of the lack of probing issues coverage and what they saw as a tilt toward Democrat Barack Obama,” she writes. “My surveys, which ended on Election Day, show that they are right on both counts.”

“My assistant, Jean Hwang, and I have been examining Post coverage since Nov. 11 last year on issues, voters, fundraising, the candidates’ backgrounds and horse-race stories on tactics, strategy and consultants. We also have looked at photos and Page 1 stories since Obama captured the nomination June 4. Numbers don’t tell you everything, but they give you a sense of The Post’s priorities,” she continues.

Not only did Howell’s investigation find the coverage of the race to be biased, she also slams her employer for not informing readers about the issues and instead of focusing completely on ‘the horse race’ and real or imagined ‘controversies.’

“The count was lopsided, with 1,295 horse-race stories and 594 issues stories. The Post was deficient in stories that reported more than the two candidates trading jabs; readers needed articles, going back to the primaries, comparing their positions with outside experts’ views. There were no broad stories on energy or science policy, and there were few on religion issues,” she writes.

The Washington Post’s ombudsman concludes: “But Obama deserved tougher scrutiny than he got, especially of his undergraduate years, his start in Chicago and his relationship with Antoin “Tony” Rezko, who was convicted this year of influence-peddling in Chicago. The Post did nothing on Obama’s acknowledged drug use as a teenager.”

Additionally, “one gaping hole in coverage involved Joe Biden, Obama’s running mate. When Gov. Sarah Palin was nominated for vice president, reporters were booking the next flight to Alaska. Some readers thought The Post went over Palin with a fine-tooth comb and neglected Biden. They are right; it was a serious omission.”

Although the soul searching clearly resulted in the Post’s ombudsman concluding that the established newspaper did not report the campaign as well as it should have, it is too little too late. Most of us complained about the obvious bias for months, but nothing was done about it when it mattered. Now when it does no longer matter, we suddenly see the ‘old media’ playing catch-up, trying to undo the damage as much as possible.

It also has to be pointed out that Howell seems to miss the real problem: the media fell all over Palin, sending dozens of reporters to Wasilla to find dirt on John McCain’s running mate, but they did not do similar research in Chicago.

To me and many others who expected American elite media to cover the race reasonably fair Howell’s column comes too late, and is especially too little to restore confidence in the Washington Post and other major newspapers. It will take them many months, hard work, and objective reporting to regain the trust and respect they once had.