05
Sep
Beating the Press - Literally
Only in America could a man who has been in office for decades run as an “outsider” against the entrenched interests in Washington.
Only in America could a man who is a longtime Republican stalwart run against his own party, which has governed while controlling most of the institutional levers of power – the Presidency, the Supreme Court and the Congress – for much of the past eight years.
And only in America could a man who has called the corporatized, in-the-tank, mainstream media his “base” — the media that made him its darling and hailed him for his supposed “straight talk” — run against that very same media, bashing it figuratively while “peace officers” were doing so quite literally in the streets of St. Paul, in a manner unseen since the Sixties and the Chicago days of Daley and the subsequent Nixonian “nattering nabobs of negativity” era.
Yes, welcome to America, land of opportunity, where every politician is a self-styled “change agent” – yet little ever seems to change…
Running hard against the elite, effete (or as Bill O’Reilly concisely puts it, the “sniveling, left-wing, wine-drinking, brie-eating”) media establishment — while simultaneously chewing on pork rinds, downing shots of Crown Royal with beer chasers, and quadrennially cozying up to Soccer and Hockey Moms and Nascar Dads — is of course a time-honored tradition among political practitioners within both the Republican and the Democratic wings of America’s ruling Property Party. Yet few since the days of Tricky Dick and his attack dog Spiro have taken the obligatory attacks on the media to such heights — or depths, really – as the McCain/Palin campaign, now effectively run by the bulletheaded attack dog Steve Schmidt and other acolytes of Karl Rove and the band of merry miscreants most responsible for the debacle formerly known as the Bush Administration.
One after another, speakers at the Republican National Convention unleashed a barrage of attacks on the news media, as the trade journal Broadcasting & Cable reported:
“As the GOP convention hit its stride Tuesday, after its opening was overshadowed by Hurricane Gustav, the press became almost as big a target as Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.), with speech after speech tarring the media as liberal and elitist.
Fred Thompson, the senator-turned-actor whose own campaign for the Republican nomination ended early, fired the first broadside in his speech Tuesday. On Wednesday, former Republican presidential candidates Mike Huckabee and Rudy Giuliani joined in before Palin herself took aim.
‘I’m not a member of the permanent political establishment,’ Palin said in her speech accepting the nomination. ‘And I’ve learned quickly these past few days that if you’re not a member in good standing of the Washington elite, then some in the media consider a candidate unqualified for that reason alone.’
This prompted sustained boos from the audience at the Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul, Minneapolis.”
Meanwhile, beleaguered Big Media news executives struggled against the unmitigated assaults to defend their coverage. “It’s a time-honored marketing ploy and, every time they bash the media, it means they’re not talking about a vision or a plan,” CNN president Jon Klein said, while also predictably trotting out his usual assault on the blogosphere as a sort of arms-length apologia: “This onslaught about the mainstream media seems woefully time-worn and out of step considering how new media have become the source of the scurrilous rumor-mongering on both the right and the left. If they want to pick a target, let them pick irresponsible bloggers who are reporting rumors promiscuously.”
From literally beating the press outside in the streets (and even threatening them inside their offices) to verbally bashing reporters and executives alike everywhere from the convention podium to select media outlets they favor, John McChange and his lipsticked pit bull Palin are counting on the fact we as a culture have developed such a severe case of ADD that we can no longer ADD one and one and get two!
Is there a problem in Washington? Forget the fact that the Republicans have been running everything there for years —and elect a Republican “change agent!” Is there a problem with the ongoing war and occupation of Iraq? Forget the fact that the Republicans have been waging a war there for years — and elect a Republican “change agent!” Is there a problem with our media being complicit with those in power and concealing the truth from the American people? Forget the fact that the Republican candidate for president has benefited from a cozy relationship with his media ‘base’ for years — and yes, elect a Republican “change agent,” who will then, unchanged, crawl right back into bed with that same elite, effete crowd the minute he sets foot in the Oval Office!
Only in America, Land of Opportunity, where everyone is free to start over – and over and over — endlessly reinventing themselves in a country where, as the poet Allen Ginsberg once noted, “yesterday’s newspaper is amnesia.”
Only in America do the supposedly “unbiased” journalists work so dang hard to get a Liberal voted into office by backing him over Hillary Clinton.
Only in America do those same journalists try to destroy a couple of teenagers lives in order to achieve the same goal.
True American Journalism died in 2008. R.I.P.
September 5th, 2008 at 4:45 pmMary Mary ‘quite contrary’ according to ‘The Art of War’, tell your enemy that your strength (Fox, CNN, CBS etc.) is your weakness.
Media bashing means there is no message to be delivered that a sane person would believe.
September 5th, 2008 at 6:09 pmAh no, sorry to disappoint but, not only in America. There goes your uniqueness. In my stupid brie-eating country, people have elected Sarkozy on a platform of change, freshness and “rupture” when he was simultaneously campaigning and being the ministre of interior. And ministre of finance before. And ministre of interior already before that. And the government’s sposkesperson and ministre of budget even earlier but then that was more than a decade earlier and we too have great media and short memories.
September 5th, 2008 at 9:50 pmSo many sources of information at 9 on the richter scale!! we need to be able to think for ourselves, use disernment and hope that one day we will know how to choose leaders who have true vision and can promote themselves without assistance from spin marketing and the media. Good article Rory!
September 6th, 2008 at 1:30 amMs. Mary,
September 6th, 2008 at 9:59 amSarah Palin’s daughter (and eventually the young man who impregnated her) were used by Sarah herself, not the media.
When they were displayed onstage (I bet Levi was real pleased to be shuttled around and presented) I knew that Rove was whispering in Sarah’s ear.
To report the reality of Sarah and her daughter’s life is the job of the news media. After all, Sarah could be our next Vice President. Don’t you think we the people should know the truth of her life?
Sarah could have kept Bristol and Levi out of the campaign, instead they tried to morph a potential liability into a “maverick” strength. That is cold politics at it’s worse. Not the media’s fault.
Rory you are over at a Salon at Firedoglake. I was banned (not on emptywheels or anywhere else on FDL) by the moderator on Christy’s blog. I was banned for bringing up the Israeli Palestinian conflict and linking it to what has taken place in the middle east including what has taken place in Iraq and about to happen in Iran. I would not back down to the moderator (who obviously wants to keep this issue blocked off of that blog). I was polite but would not back down.
Here is my question for you at the Salon. Do you consider NPR fair and balanced in its coverage of the Israeli Palestinian conflict. Also
I believe there are very serious blog clogs about the I/P issue not only in the MSM but on so called “progressive” blogs. I firmly believe that it is one this issue where the MSM and the progressive blogosphere merge. What do you think?
September 6th, 2008 at 4:12 pmIn many instances, the press has certainly crossed the line of good and fair judgment in their reporting. I believe in free press and the right to express the truth, but it turns into something else when this privilege is used in an attempt to destroy a person’s character over petty, insignificant things. And, in my opiniopn, that is exactly what one station tried to do to Sarah Palin. However, I believe that it back-fired; they hurt themselves far more than they did Sarah Palin.
September 7th, 2008 at 4:41 pm“John McChange and his lipsticked pit bull Palin are counting on the fact we as a culture have developed such a severe case of ADD that we can no longer ADD one and one and get two!”
Well put. This was my favorite sentence.
Re your first sentence: Remember that scene in Blazing Saddles where Cleavon Little puts a gun to his own throat and plays up multiple personalities? And the townspeople pull away, confused. Hissy fits fit everywhere. Maybe a kind of “shock and awe”? At least the offensive defense without the offense. I hope the majority can add and get two. I know I am feeling sorely ADDled!
September 8th, 2008 at 12:07 amOnce upon a time, the two parties’ national conventions chose presidential nominees. Now, they are television shows that try to establish a narrative, one that links the long-since-determined nominee’s life story with the ongoing history of the nation, one that shows how this one man is perfectly positioned to lead America to a better future. The hope is that the nominees will get a bounce in the polls.
And they usually do. Gallup Poll data show that nominees got a 5 percent or better bounce from 14 of the 16 national conventions between 1976 and 2004. And that’s even for nominees who in retrospect seem less than inspiring. In 1988, Democrats presented Michael Dukakis as the son of immigrants who produced the Massachusetts miracle; Republicans presented George H. W. Bush as the pioneer who went to Texas and was now ready to take on another mission. Both got 11 percent bounces. The biggest of all—30 percent—went to Bill Clinton, “the man from Hope,” in 1992, helped by Ross Perot’s withdrawal on the day of his acceptance speech. The notable exceptions came in 2004, when a polarized electorate gave George W. Bush only a 4 percent bounce, and John Kerry—”reporting for duty”—actually lost ground.
October 7th, 2008 at 5:20 am————
Tanyaa
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