Considering the Tea Party is a new movement with a much smaller contingent, I think calling it a fringe movement is quite accurate especially prior to the election. Also, if you had control of the media and really wanted to squash the Tea Party, wouldn't it be more effective to just not report on it at all? By reporting on it every night, they're actually giving it notoriety and allowing people to know much more about the movement. So I'd suggest that the liberal media is doing exactly the opposite of what people are claiming they're trying to do and are biased <i>towards </i>the Tea Party. Why don't they give more press time to other "fringe" political parties? Because they like the Tea Party more, that's why.
Given that "liberal" is seen as more of a negative label than "conservative"; couldn't you argue that the liberal media is actually helping the conservative candidates by clearly and routinely telling me which one is the conservative candidate. If any thing, I see that as a conservative bias by helping one candidate with a favorable title and helping me more easily identify them.
Many of those races were the higher profile ones for a variety of reasons. But, doesn't the media in general always report on the "freak show" events more than the actual issues. That's why Paris Hilton and her like get so much press time. I'd say they're just giving the dumbed down masses what the ratings indicate they watch more than any sort of political bias. The chick in DE said she practiced witchcraft, you gotta admit that's going to get headlines and subsequently a lot of press time for the duration of the event.