In the main, the establishment American media abandoned its critical faculties during the Obama campaign — and it hasn’t reclaimed them since.
Much of the Obama coverage was orchestrated sycophancy. They glided past his pretensions — when did a presidential candidate before “address the world” from the Brandenberg Gate in Berlin? They ignored his arrogance — “You’re likable enough, Hillary.” And they averted their eyes from his every gaffe — such as the admission that he didn’t speak “Austrian.”
The media walked right past the decades-long association of Obama with the weird and racist pastor Jeremiah Wright. In the midst of the brief stormlet over the issue, one CNN host — inexplicably — decided that CNN was going to be a “Wright-free zone.” He could have hung out a sign: “No bad news about Obama here.”
The media trashed Hillary. They burned Republicans. They ransacked Sarah Palin and her family. But Obama, the cool, the detached, the oracular Obama — he strolled to the presidency.
Palin, in particular, stands out as Obama’s opposite in the media’s eyes. As much as they genuflected to the one, they felt the need to turn rottweiler toward the other. If Obama was sacred , classy, intellectual and cosmopolitan, why then Palin must be malevolent, trashy, dumb and pure backwoods-ignorant.
Every doubt they hid from themselves about Obama, every potential embarrassment they tucked under the blanket of their superior sensibilities, they furiously over-compensated for by their remorseless hounding of Palin — from utterly trivial e-mails, to blogger Andrew Sullivan’s weird speculations about Palin’s womb, musings that put the Obama “Birther” fantasies into a realm near sanity. (We are now seeing an echo of that — with a new book promoting all sorts of unconfirmed gossip about Palin, including her alleged sexual dalliance with a basketball star.)
As a result, the press gave the great American republic an untried, unknown and, it is becoming more and more frighteningly clear, incompetent figure as President. Under Obama, America’s foreign policies are a mixture of confusion and costly impotence. It is increasingly bypassed or derided; the great approach to the Muslim world, symbolized by the Cairo speech, is in tatters. Its debt and deficits are a weight on the entire global economy. And the office of presidency is less and less a symbol of strength.
To the degree the press neglected its function as watchdog and turned cupbearer to a Styrofoam demigod, it is a partner in the flaws and failures of what is turning out to be one of the most miserable performances in the modern history of the American presidency.
6 hours ago
36 comments:
"cupbearer to a styrofoam demigod". Nice.
And I'm sure this will appear in the left wing circles as a piece from a jounralist "out of touch." Sad, but politics have degraded to little more than name calling from the left, rather than trying to win the day with the strength of their position. One formerly just right of center board trumpets how Newt has turned into a zombie this morning for daring to talk of another version of The Contract with America. No comment on the content of it's character, just derided from whom it comes....and so has gone the MSM....
How can he be incompetent? He's educated at Hah vahd. He is a self loving, nincompoop that really has produced nothing but books about himself. But hey, he's a Black man that spoke well, so he's special. Um, not so much anymore. The man has not there, there. He is an empty vacuuous shell of a being. Remember when he first came on the seen when they asked if he was Black enough? Wrong freaking question, you racist idiots! The question is, "Is he experienced enough?" Answer, "NO!" Even still after 3 yrs on the job, he has learned nothing and keeps peddling the same line of crap.
As for the journalists - you guys that ignored the obvious are a socialist American hating hangers on that are useless. Just report the facts. Let the American people decide. Instead, there is lies of omission, and unfaithful dirt digging campaign to smear anybody that does not fit the liberal agenda. A pox upon you and yours.
Wow, that's going to leave a mark.
When our friends to the north get it, they really get it. During the recount debacle in 2000, I asked a Canadian friend, who worked in the States, what he thought of it. Reluctantly, he told me that it was the most amazing thing he had ever seen. He said that "The Democrats are stealing your presidential election in clear view, and your press in cheering them on."
The fourth pillar is enshrined in the constitution. It has a responsibility to the people, a responsibility that they shirked. The press thinks of itself now as a big brother rather than an exposer of truth and lies. Sad.
I have faith, though. The pendiullum always swings back.
LT B,
As my father used to say, "He is educated beyond his intelligence." Hah vahd or no Hah vahd, it is like being the smartest idiot in the room.
Waiting for someone to ask Chris "In The Tank" Matthews how that "tingle up my leg" is going these days. But let's face it, when you look at the real history of newspapering and then broadcast journalism in this country, the whole "we just report the news" meme is a self-generated myth by the Fourth Estate. In reality, they've been partisan since the earliest printing presses came to the Colonies. Even now, they still bask in the two-generations-old afterglow of the Watergate affair and see themselves as even more in a position as king-makers, and breakers.
I am ashamed to admit, but that imbecile (Matthews) is a Holy Cross grad. The Jebbies swung and missed in trying to educate that loudmouth.
Wait - is he trying to say that President Barry is a farking moron abetted by the mainstream media?! Okay - I'm good with that.
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<p><span><span>Democracy is the theory that the common people know what they want and deserve to get it good and hard.</span><span> </span></span>
H. L. Mencken
Well, we got Barry - I hope they are happy...</p>
Media bias is so pervasive that even my (and Kristen's) alma mater, deep in the LA media echo chamber, couldn't help but notice:
http://newsroom.ucla.edu/portal/ucla/Media-Bias-Is-Real-Finds-UCLA-6664.aspx
AMEN!
Let's see if a single U.S. newspaper chooses to print this in their "opinion" pages. Bet not!
Most astute commentary I've seen in weeks. BRAVO ZULU !
So, this morning at the Mommy Stroller Fitness Club, the consensus was that he's heading for losing about 40 states, which should lead to a wonderful cascade effect all over the country and usher in conservative Republicans in Congress and the state legislatures. Let the good times roll!
Andy, Michelle Bachman isn't my presidential candidate, but I loved it on election night 2010 when she asked Chris Matthews how his leg tingle was doing.
GOH, amazing, no? And coming from the Political Science department, no less. He must have a great time at the faculty lunches with the rest of professoriate glowering at him.
Salty, I think the MSM will go out of business rather than change their biased reporting. Thank God for all of the new media that we have available to us. I can't imagine what is was like in, say, the 60s, with the New York Times and the 6 o'clock news controlling all of the information.
Well, why would they. Unless work is submitted, newspapers don't just print somebody's writings. Silly comment.
I imagine he probably eats lunch alone at his desk in Bunche Hall...the price to be paid for independent thought in the hallowed halls of academia...
Interesting take on the man.
Surprise, surprise. Comments to the original article are already closed. Apparently they forgot to set the troll watch prior to publication.
Can we let them keep the Senate? The wrecking ball can't swing too far to either side if there is to be at least SOME balance in guvmint. Like a built in speedbrake.
I'm willing to poll the other Mommies, but I'm going to have to vote no. I don't think I can stand two more years of watching Harry Reid's pinched face behind the Senate microphone.
Bitter much?
Another great post - but tell me something we all don't know.
Is this a surprise to anyone? Obama is exactly what we all said he would be. A complete amatuer, and that's dangerous in the position he holds
My father reminded me that in 1975, the MSM coverage of the fall of Saigon was that "The South Vietnamese people are obviously embracing communism...the only reason why the war went on for so long was because we were there. the South Vietnamese wanted to be Communist all along."
MSM has been fumbling for a while, so I see your point.
But the way to get rich these days is not hiring people but laying them off, and paying the rest less with the axe of unemployment forcing them to work harder for less... and better yet outsourcing everything to cheap labor countries and using only part-time temporary workers to sell the product here.Then invest everything in gold and head for Bahamas where you dont need to pay any taxes 8-)
Perhaps the best testimony to Obama's failure is the way Europe, Middle East, and everyone else who has welcomed change from the Bush Jr. now is simply disenchanted.
Now, Kristen, you know the only way Feinstein and Boxer will leave the Senate is feet first...back in my days in the (now tarnished) Golden State, Cranston and Tunney were the perpetual Senators. IIRC, Cranston actually did leave feet first.
The Silver State will have to deal with Reid on their own. Maybe Steve Wynn has a plan.
Look on the bright side. Moonbeam is back in Sacramento, all is right with Kal-ee-foorn-ee-ahh politics.
I wish I could embed the famous Denny Green video (my former Viking coach) of when he had the rant 'they are who we thought they were' for the Arizona Cardinals - classic Denny
Now, now, Wharf,
Gguest is just pointing out what Comrade Obama tells us is "the American way". Families helping those in need. By forced appropriation from the private sector by the Federal government which penalizes any and all success/profit ("fair share"), and redistribution of that wealth to organized labor, who just so happens to be campaign contributors to Obama and the rest of the Democrats. Tax and spend is the order of the day. For the People. The Children.
I KNOW this sounds like 1) stealing, and 2) money laundering, but that is only because you are not sufficiently educated enough to understand how FAIR Obama is being. If only you knew what he and his cabal knew, you would think just like he does.
When The Empty Suit was running for president and after he won the election, I asked friends who voited for him "why?" NOT ONE and I mean, NOT ONE checked his record.
Educated peple were totally taken in by the media hype. They chose their brand of toilet tissue with more thoughtfulness than they did the leader of the free world.
Now, no one will admit they voted for him. Wonder why.
Here you go:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m_N1OjGhIFc
Not so, SG.
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.
The amendment only mentions "the press" in the context of the two available methods of communication at the time; actual public speaking and printed matter. The "press" (or more generically, the media) as we know it today pretty much didn't exist back then. The closest modern analog would be ... bloggers... :)
Not true, Andy. For some time there was an honest effort to provide impartial reporting. One excellent example would be Shirer's Berlin Diary, wherein he complained about how it was nearly impossible to do honest reporting in Germany before the war.
I strongly suspect one of the reasons the media have gone to hell is that the owning corporations made news organizations for-profit divisions back in the 1970s, or early 80s. These days it helps ratings, as well as the bottom line, to encourage the crazies in the business.
No, Surfcaster, I think the Democratic Party needs at least one tremendous political enema; it would do the party a lot of good. Look at how well the GOP turned around after getting nuked in 1964. When you get beat that badly, one is forced to take a very deep look in the mirror.
And, no, I don't think the 2010 election was much of an enema. If nothing else many progressives see it as a temporary setback caused by poor public relations from the Democratic party with respect to their goals.
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