MarketWatch columnist Jon Friedman says Michele Bachmann is a media darling right now but that "her honeymoon with journalists will soon end."

In his Media Web blog on MarketWatch.com, Friedman writes:

Michele Bachmann for president?

No way. The media, most of who are liberal in nature, won't let it happen. Reporters have anointed the 55-year-old Minnesota congresswoman as the flavor of the month in the wake of her dignified performance at the Republican candidates' recent debate. But their interest in her will dim before long.

Previously, she was treated like someone who was about three bricks shy of a load.

Friedman then quotes Time magazine political writer Melinda Henneberger as saying: "It's amazing how we in the media swung from saying, 'Bachmann is an idiot' before the debate and now ‘Bachmann can do no wrong.' "

Really? Given all the hubbub over the John Wayne comment, it seems hard to argue that the media has taken a "can-do-no-wrong" stance toward Bachmann. (That particular incident wasn't reported in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch's story about Bachmann's formal announcement of her candidacy. The Post-Dispatch usually chooses not to run stories about political gaffes or slips of the tongue.)

Friedman's MarketWatch column concludes:

Now that Bachmann has declared herself to be a candidate, the scrutiny will begin in earnest. Every misstep will be magnified.

"My hunch is that we will get some balanced coverage, which she and we deserve," said Eric Deggans, the TV and media critic for the St. Petersburg Times. "I don't think the honeymoon will last."

(Update: If the headline on Friedman's online column is an indicator, the honeymoon may have ended. When this item was first written, the main headline read: "Michele Bachmann is a short-term media darling." It now reads: "Michele Bachmann, I think you're a joke.")