As if awakening from a long, languorous slumber where dreams of the perfect liberal being comfortably ensconced in the White House made it impossible for the press to get up, rub their eyes, and return to the real world, it seems that the American media has finally decided to start treating Barack Obama with a little of the curmudgeonly cynicism that has been the hallmark of political reporting in this country for much of its existence.
The press likes to think of themselves as the “Fourth Estate” – the gatekeepers who protect American democracy from the ravages of crooked pols, greedy businessmen, religious charlatans, and most especially, unqualified presidential candidates.
Of course, many of my fellow conservatives don’t think of the press as the “Fourth Estate” as much as they see the media as a “Fifth Column,” deliberately undermining American policy abroad and either ignoring or savaging conservatives at home.
But that judgment may be too harsh. Overall, the press may hold liberal positions on the issues but their real failure lies in their total insularity from views different than their own.
The problem is that there is a bubble that these media elites live in. They live in it in Manhattan & Washington. It’s a very comfortable bubble and they almost never run into people inside it who have differing points of view. They can go through a whole day, a whole week, a whole month, without running into someone who has a differing view on the big social issues of our time…
If you take into consideration how consolidated the media is today and the fact that most local newspapers and TV networks depend on the big boys for national and foreign news reporting, you can see how just a handful of insulated liberals can affect the way news is reported across a wide swath of the American media landscape.
So it is not surprising that the glowing, almost worshipful coverage of the Obama campaign would have powered the Illinois senator through the primaries to a now virtual lock on the Democratic nomination.
But as Howard Kurtz points out, the dynamic of press coverage has now changed:
After more than a year of mostly glowing coverage, Barack Obama is having to defend his relationship with the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, his temerity in not sporting a flag pin, even his arugula-loving, bad-bowling, let-me-eat-my-waffle persona that fostered what Newsweek has branded “the Bubba Gap.”“The media have decided to get tougher on Obama,” says St. Petersburg Times media critic Eric Deggans. “There was so much talk about him getting such an easy ride that some journalists got tired of it.”
And the catalyst for this turnabout came from a very unexpected source; a couple of skits on the old political warhorse TV show Saturday Night Live. The bits were devilishly clever, playing to the idea that the media was in the tank for Obama – something almost everyone in America was aware except the media itself.
The February 23rd show was actually mentioned by Hillary Clinton in the Cleveland debate as proof that the press was biased toward her opponent. Those skits may have been one of the most impactful political satires in decades. Not since Chevy Chase’s bumbling portrayal of President Ford has a TV bit entered the political consciousness of the country.
The press was stung to the quick and began to look for opportunities to stick it to Obama. They didn’t have long to wait when the Jeremiah Wright fiasco exploded onto the scene in mid-March. Seeming to make up for lost time, the press latched on to the Wright controversy and began to question Obama’s judgement and beliefs – long overdue according to some:
Still, says David Greenberg, a Rutgers University professor of journalism and history, the coverage could be far worse. For journalists, he says, “there has been a real infatuation with Obama that has served as almost an unconscious restraint” as many became “taken with the idea of demonstrating their tolerance and America’s tolerance by electing a black candidate.”What loosened those restraints, Greenberg says, was the media’s conclusion that Obama had virtually wrapped up his nomination fight against Hillary Clinton. “It’s backwards—the toughest scrutiny should come while it’s still a real fight,” he says.
Obama’s image has undergone something of a transformation. In March, feeding the curiosity about his background, a Newsweek cover story focused on “When Barry Became Barack” in college, while a Time cover profiled the candidate’s mother. By last week, Newsweek’s cover piece was exploring why he seems “strange,” “exotic” and, to some, “haughty” and “a bit of an egghead.” How did Obama, cast by some journalists as the new JFK, come to be depicted as what the New Republic’s John Judis says may be “The Next McGovern”?
What does it say about a press that waits until the candidate has the nomination virtually sown up before pouncing on his vulnerabilities? I think any reasonable person can conclude that they’ve got the process back asswards. Aren’t they supposed to vet the candidate while there is still a competitive race going on? And the fact that they haven’t played their traditional role of gatekeeper with Obama (closing the gate after the horse has gotten away) is significant.
That and the fact that all of this is happening 7 months before the election in November means that Obama – a gifted and inspiring figure to many – can still recover and beat McCain in the fall. One wonders if Reverend Wright would have received this kind of coverage in October.
My guess is no, he wouldn’t have been a big issue in September or October. Nor will Tony Rezko make an appearance between the time of the Democratic convention and election day. And I doubt we’ll be hearing too much about William Ayers and his flag stomping, terrorist ways either.
All of that will rightfully be seen as old news by then – that is, unless new information surfaces that would show Obama to be a liar as far as the extent of his problem associations have been. Whether such information is out there to be reported I have little doubt. But the only place you are going to see Wright damning America come the fall campaign is in a GOP 527 ad.
In short, the press may not be as puppy-dog worshipful as they were a couple of months ago. But their basic feelings about Obama don’t show any signs of changing. Witness the panting over his March speech in Philadelphia where he denounced what Wright was saying but not the man. It was hailed as one of the greatest political speeches in history. The press was just looking for an excuse to forgive him and they found it in Obama’s post-racial vision of America.
Then just last week, the press once again praised Obama to the skies for “distancing himself” from Wright – rarely asking the obvious question of why he couldn’t have done so the previous month in “one of the greatest speeches” of all time.
Yes the press has taken a more aggressive tack in covering Obama. But at the same time, they are still bending over backwards to excuse, to explain away, or, as in the case of the William Ayers story, simply ignore Obama’s lies about how well he knew him.
For these reasons, I don’t think we can say that the press still isn’t in the bag for Barack Obama. They may like McCain as well but does anyone really believe that when the campaign narrative is developed this fall that John McCain will be seen by the press in a positive light? It will be Barack Obama to America’s rescue, riding on a black and white horse but with the head of an elephant and the tail of a donkey. He will be the post-racial, post partisan candidate just as he was always meant to be.
Just as the press wants him to be.
2:45 pm
There are at least ten reasons to not vote for Obama, that do not include his lack of judgement in choosing Wright as a pastor:
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1)Obama refuses to speak to reporters/walks out of conferences. He is not a transparent politician.
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2)He was involved with Tony Rezko, who was indicted for influence peddling and is a corrupting influence in Illinois politics. Tony Rezko got millions of dollars from the government to create affordable housing in Obama’s district, now 11 of the buildings he was supposed to fix are boarded-up and are unlivable. ?
3)Obama supports nuclear power even though radioactive nuclear waste is a problem no country has solved, the added terrorist threat that nuclear power poses, and the history of accidents such as Three Mile Island and Chernobyl. Obama supports nuclear power because he was bought off by the nuclear power utility industry. He has taken a lot of money from them.
4)Obama voted “present” hundreds of times instead of taking a stand because he did not want to offend contributors, like Robert Blackwell, who Obama helped obtain state grants for. ?
5)Obama chose as his mentor Bill Ayers and Bernadine Dohrn, who are terrorists who detonated bombs on US territory and they helped him start his career.
6)Obama lied about filling out a questionnaire that details his stand on many important issues like abortion, the death penalty and gun control. It has his handwriting but he said a staffer filled it out. Obama also lied about the Kennedy family helping his father.
7)Obama also has acknowledged that he “voted by mistake” many times?! ?
8)Obama made a statement that said his grandmother is “a typical white person” who has a “reaction bred” into her when she sees someone she does not know. ?
9)Obama made a statement that small-town Americans are bitter and cling to guns, religion, and anti-trade sentiment.
10)Obama lies about the Clinton economic boom, if you go to FactCheck.org, you will see that Clinton is credited for passing the 1993 budget that helped create the boom of the 1990s.
Watch the videos here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YAUJeeKohNA
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BvoGAcG0vZ0
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s5l6oAD5d-s
6:00 pm
Krauthammer opined on Fox News tonight that the Red Witch is finally enjoying herself on the campaign trail because she has figured out how to make hay against BHO. Go to the right of BHO on “values” issues like guns, religion, family values, etc. This opening peresented itself with the Wright/Ayers thing and the San Francisco comments to his “elite” contributors.
Even though it may be too late, she is getting traction with the new strategy, and enjoying herself much more.
“Found her voice” as it were. I must say it is a far better voice than her former “whiny bitch” schtick.
6:01 pm
There’s a pretty good article in New York Magazine on how the media are in the bag for Obama, ironically written by an Obama supporter who admits that he’s never rooted for anything before in his life:
http://nymag.com/news/imperialcity/46658/
7:47 pm
“the real failure of the press corp”—how about these options?
—the press corp is lazy
—the press corp is packed with mediocrity when compared to the education, intelligence, and skill level of most other professions.
—the press corp is corrupt, full of people who trade access for softball coverage, most usually when they are fellow Democrats
—survey says the press corp is 95% plus left of center partisan Democrats
Just a start on a list which could be much longer.
9:21 pm
I think Obama would be an unmitigated disaster as President, worse than even Jimmy Carter. I find Clinton loathesome but would prefer she whip B. Hussein for the dem nomination even if it means she ends up POTUS.
#1 I don’t think nuclear energy is the all-encompassing evil that the Green wackos make it to be. It supplies nearly all of France’s electric needs, for one thing. Isn’t something like 40% of oil used in America spent on generating electricity? Just START building some new plants and a few new refineries and crude prices would fall. Of course windbags NIMBYs like Teddy K. would oppose it as he does wind power because it affects his own sailing and scenic views. But I suppose self-aggrandizing pols deserve to be accomodated rather than the American consumers.
10:11 pm
Let us ask Obama if he supports the Black Liberation Movement: Yes, or No.
11:14 pm
Where is your love for McCain? Or is it easier just to hate Obama? You, who are so independent and smart, can you only pummel the opposition while failing to get behind the feeble, feckless McCain? You must feel good about yourselves because you can swallow self-loathing. Love McCain is not the same as hate Obama. Ask anybody. why do you hate Americans? I will see you all in hell…
8:45 am
It doesn’t matter.
It just doesn’t matter.
It just doesn’t matter how softball the press coverage is of Obama. There is no way he can win in November over McCain. Go to this website: http://www.270towin.com and spend some time looking at the electoral maps. Then try to figure out a way that Obama gets to 270 electoral votes.
The task is almost impossible. You can wring your hands all you want, worrying about the prospect of a president Obama, or how the media is in the tank for him. Not me. I’m going to sit back and watch the Democrats horror as they realize the Dukakis-Bush race was a cliff hanger.
3:28 pm
The additional dynamic at play here is this thing called the blogsphere. The “old” media really cannot afford to follow their typical patterns this time because we are out there ever-vigilant and trying to keep them marginally honest. Most of the “revelations” about this gigantic humbug (to use P.T. Barnum’s favorite phrase) named Barack Hussein Obama have been ferreted out by members of the alternative media.
Combine that with their circulation numbers that are now in total free fall and they may have found themselves forced to show at least a teensy measure of real even-handed coverage.
If all of us (including the candidates) would focus on the fact that we should not just be encouraging the trifling word play that passes for political speech these days and remember that this election year is no less than a job interview for the position of someone who will protect our nation from enemies – both foreign and domestic (including the U.S. Congress, the most dangerous enemy of all at times).
I guess what I’m basically saying is that I wish both political parties and any fascinating wee splinter parties as well would just get serious about the dangers facing our nation and the world and come up with some suggestions we could all discuss! Without rancor and without name calling! What are we still 5-year olds on the playground?
3:31 pm
As to The Spawn of Satan, she is adept as always at trying to give evil a pleasing face – in other words, she’s only about 52% effective. The mask just insists on slipping!