I turned off the 5 Live commentary because the bias was so evident. Switched over to Alistair Mann and Michael Brown. Not wild about Mann as a commentator, to be honest, but his natural bias is tempered by Brown, and they do both make an effort to be objective, and give credit where credit's due on both sides. The open bias in favour of Newcastle on the BBC just sickened me in the end.
I think you're right about the underdog phenomenon up to a point. Although I seem to remember all rag goals being greeted with yells of triumph on tv and radio during their glory years. Maybe that was just my bitterness imagining it, I don't know. For sure, the whole fucking world and his little dog celebrated the Michael Owen goal in the 255th minute. And it was always “Good old Fergie, he always manages to do it!”. Yes, he always managed to do it by browbeating linos and the ref shamelessly.