« Dialogue | Main | Couch Guests » There's The Love30 Jul 2008 09:08 am Media Matters goes after the press and its worshipful relationship with John McCain: I'll freely admit that Barack Obama gets about the best press I've ever seen a Democrat who doesn't just constantly trash other Democrats get. But the specter of watching John McCain -- who gets the best press of any politician anywhere -- spend the past few weeks whining about the media is more than a little infuriating. Comments (26)
McCain's strategy is rather clever. He wants Americans to consider anything positive they hear about Obama to be unjustified hype. Like scribbling "Don't believe his lies" on the back of a Polaroid. 
Obama gets lots of press, absolutely. But that huge amount of coverage can be very troublesome when any gaffe or perceived gaffe is made. The media is constantly around, so the chatter goes off the charts. No one even cares when McCain says something crazy. http://www.political-buzz.com/
I'll throw McCain one bone on this issue: while it is true the media is basically covering for his frequent flip-flops, gaffes, panders, and so forth, it is also true the media is treating his candidacy in general as a lot less interesting than Obama's. Now personally, I suspect the media is right on that score, meaning I think the media has correctly calculated there is a much more demand for Obama stories than McCain stories in their markets. But I do think that hurts McCain politically overall.
If McCain went through anything even remotely close to the furious media assult launch on Obama during the Rev. Wright and "bitter-gate" affair, his campaign would have folded completely.
Obama has made almost no mistakes so reporters don't have much to jump on. McCain seems to have become a weekly gaffe machine yet you'd mainly only know that by reading the blogs. I'm curious to see what happens when Obama makes a gaffe. I'm not optimistic though.
If McCain went through anything even remotely close to the furious media assult launch on Obama during the Rev. Wright and "bitter-gate" affair, his campaign would have folded completely.
But the specter of watching John McCain -- who gets the best press of any politician anywhere -- spend the past few weeks whining about the media is more than a little infuriating. I'm getting the sense that John McCain is rather unstable when challenged. This is not a good personality flaw for somebody who wishes to be President. His reaction to the media coverage of his actual words is just one example. How about the number of times he's been reported to swear at other Senators who don't agree with him? Remember his snotty comments to the Vietnam vet who dared to question his record (rightly so it turns out) of supporting veteran's isues. How about the lies in his latest ads because he's trailing Obama in the polls? How about calling his wife a c*** when she teased him about his thinning hair? This is why he disdains negotiations and diplomacy. His instinctive reaction to any situation not going his way is to attack. Simply put, he's a f***ing child.
I remember that Glenn Greenwald post a year or two ago when Mark Halperin went on Hugh Hewitt's show and groveled before him, taking great offense at Hewitt's characterization of him as a "liberal". Halperin even wrote a fawning, worshipful email afterwards saying how awesome Hugh is and how he really is not a liberal. It's middle school all over again, where the bullied kids think they can act real nice to the bullies and give them what they want just so they don't get bullied anymore. Except it doesn't work, a lesson that many media members apparently did not get.
McCain... who gets the best press of any politician anywhere Of course, that's been scientifically proven false. As I've posted before. But Matthew has a faith-based belief that McCain gets better coverage in the press than Obama, and nothing will ever be possible to break Matthew's faith-based belief. It's as if Matthew is the Pat Robertson of media analysis: his faith is so strong that no amount of science will ever break it. Left wingers like Matthew are always about the faith-based narratives. They simply don't care about science, and never have. Matthew's repeat posts about this - all of which are completely contradicted by science - simply proves his hatred for science.
Al, not to take the bait, but, looking at the study you linked to in any depth, it's clear why the outcome is charactarized this way. Media references which enforce "The dominant theme about McCain, that he may not be a true conservative, was established early in the coverage", are considered negative. Given that this is a general election in which it is in McCain's interest to distance himself from the current conservative administration, and the fact that he has long branded himself a 'maverick', I'm not sure how these statements are "negative" in any meaningful way outside the context of the republican primary.
Al, not to take the bait, but, looking at the study you linked to in any depth, it's clear why the outcome is charactarized this way. Media references which enforce "The dominant theme about McCain, that he may not be a true conservative, was established early in the coverage", are considered negative. Given that this is a general election in which it is in McCain's interest to distance himself from the current conservative administration, and the fact that he has long branded himself a 'maverick', I'm not sure how these statements are "negative" in any meaningful way outside the context of the republican primary.
*cough* The fact that you think McCain gets more favorable press than Obama simply shows that you pay no attention. It's clear to anyone with a frontal cortex that the press is having a love affair with Obama. Ask yourself this: If any other candidate refused press access as often as Obama does, how would they be treated? How would Hillary have fared?
SPECTACLE
Spectacle indeed - bread and circuses for the masses -- it is now all about the horse race. I'm still trying to figure out what the candidates stand for -- what are their principled positions and which positions are negotiable. I thing we'd all be surprised by the result. Maybe some real reporting and blogging on policy differentials (and similarities?) might be useful.
... and NOBODY does more whining than you.
Ask yourself this: If any other candidate refused press access as often as Obama does, how would they be treated? How would Hillary have fared? - Posted by James Robertson Bush did alright for about 6 years.
Robertson - you don't have a frontal cortex. Or a rear cortex for that matter. Left or right hemispheres seem to be missing as well. Not sure you have anything over a reptile brain.
With the exception of Mike Barnacle's comment, all the video clips in the ad come from before or during the Republican primary season. If the press worships McCain so much (even more than Obama per Matt), I would expect more than one recent clip to be put forward as evidence.
With the exception of Mike Barnacle's comment, all the video clips in the ad come from before or during the Republican primary season. If the press worships McCain so much (even more than Obama per Matt), I would expect more than one recent clip to be put forward as evidence.
With the exception of Mike Barnacle's comment, all the video clips in the ad come from before or during the Republican primary season. If the press worships McCain so much (even more than Obama per Matt), I would expect more than one recent clip to be put forward as evidence.
The above U Tube video is absolutely RIDICULOUS. McCain is given minimum coverage on MSNBC. In fact at our house MSNBC is called the OBAMA CHANNEL. It used to be called "the Clinton/Obama Channel until Clinton lost in the primaries. Between MSNBC and CNN, I've never seen such slanted left wing coverage in my life. They need some NEW opinions on there, instead of the Same/Old opinions from the same group, day in & day out.
The above U Tube video is absolutely RIDICULOUS. McCain is given minimum coverage on MSNBC. In fact at our house MSNBC is called the OBAMA CHANNEL. It used to be called "the Clinton/Obama Channel until Clinton lost in the primaries. Between MSNBC and CNN, I've never seen such slanted left wing coverage in my life. They need some NEW opinions on there, instead of the Same/Old opinions from the same group, day in & day out.
The above U Tube video is absolutely RIDICULOUS. McCain is given minimum coverage on MSNBC. In fact at our house MSNBC is called the OBAMA CHANNEL. It used to be called "the Clinton/Obama Channel until Clinton lost in the primaries. Between MSNBC and CNN, I've never seen such slanted left wing coverage in my life. They need some NEW opinions on there, instead of the Same/Old opinions from the same group, day in & day out.
The above U Tube video is absolutely RIDICULOUS. McCain is given minimum coverage on MSNBC. In fact at our house MSNBC is called the OBAMA CHANNEL. It used to be called "the Clinton/Obama Channel until Clinton lost in the primaries. Between MSNBC and CNN, I've never seen such slanted left wing coverage in my life. They need some NEW opinions on there, instead of the Same/Old opinions from the same group, day in & day out.
The above U Tube video is absolutely RIDICULOUS. McCain is given minimum coverage on MSNBC. In fact at our house MSNBC is called the OBAMA CHANNEL. It used to be called "the Clinton/Obama Channel until Clinton lost in the primaries. Between MSNBC and CNN, I've never seen such slanted left wing coverage in my life. They need some NEW opinions on there, instead of the Same/Old opinions from the same group, day in & day out.
Comments closed August 13, 2008. |
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Heads in the Sand
There is no doubt the press is biased towards COVERING Obama, but that's a huge difference than sayting they're biased towards Obama.
With all that extra coverage comes extra scrutiny - anyone remember the 5-day freak-out over Obama using the word "refine?" - and McCain can thank his lucky stars he's not getting that level of scrutiny.
http://strategy08.wordpress.com
Posted by Dan | July 30, 2008 9:19 AM