Reduced to Sputtering -- Media

Today's News & Views
September 8, 2008

Reduced to Sputtering -- Media"



#1. "Why McCain Is Running Against the News Media"
Headline of story written by Peter A. Brown for this morning's Wall Street Journal.

# 2. "MSNBC is removing Keith Olbermann and Chris Matthews as the anchors of live political events, bowing to growing criticism that they are too opinionated to be seen as neutral in the heat of the presidential campaign."
From "MSNBC Drops Olbermann, Matthews as News Anchors," written by the Washington Post's Howard Kurtz.




#3. Meet the Press host Tom Brokaw, asking pro-abortion Democratic vice presidential nominee Sen. Joseph Biden about the speech given last week by pro-life Republican vice presidential nominee, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin:



Brokaw: Who was the first person you called after the speech?
Biden: After my speech?
Brokaw: After her speech.
Biden: I didn't call anybody. I didn't--I happened to be--I didn't get her--I didn't see her speech, I saw part of it. I--we were, we were flying to--from Florida to Virginia, and I caught the tail end of it. And--oh, I guess I--actually, I called my wife. I called my wife.

And probably sobbed when he did. For someone, like me, who both scribbles for a livelihood and works for an organization routinely bashed by scribes of the "mainstream media," it doesn't get much better than watching them squirm.

With growing anger, Americans have watched the usual suspects work over pro-life Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin. Brass knuckles, blackjacks, and assorted other weaponry have been the order of the day.

But a funny thing happened on the way to the Republican National Convention. Gov. Palin refused to buckle, refused to be intimidated, and refused to let the Keith Olbermanns, Chris Matthewes, and Andrea Mitchells get away with the vicious caricatures they drew of Palin and her entire family.

Her calm display of grace while under siege energized the convention and, for that matter, anyone and everyone who believes in fair play. The subsequent response to the joint appearances of pro-life Sen. John McCain and Gov. Palin--the numbers of people, the enthusiasm, and the instant bond--instantly brings to mind the response to pro-abortion Sen. Barack Obama during his heyday.

Three quick points.

First, Peter Brown is a fine analyst and an excellent writer. But there is a strong suggestion in his piece in today's Journal that the McCain campaign is inflating the media bias McCain and Palin have endured just to motivate the troops. I can only shake my head in disbelief. It's been a feeding frenzy like nothing I have ever seen.

As the story written by the Washington Post's Howard Kurtz illustrates, the worst offenders--MSNBC's Keith Olbermann and Chris Matthews--have been demoted, or transferred laterally, if you want to take the most benign view. While taking the anchor spots away from them for "live political events" is unmistakable evidence of their grotesque one-sidedness, it is also true that they will stay on as "commentators." My guess is that freed from even an afterthought of impartiality, they will be even more vicious than ever.

Second, a front page story in this morning's USA Today carries the headline "McCain, GOP get a bounce in poll." We learn in the second paragraph that McCain leads Obama 50% to 46% "among registered voters." He had "lagged by 7 percentage points" just before the Republican convention began last week. We also learn the "enthusiasm gap" has almost completely vanished.

Oh, by the way, buried in the second half of the story in one sentence is this nugget: "Among those seen as most likely to vote, McCain lead Obama by 54% to 44%"--an advantage of not 4% but 10%.

And third, pro-abortion Sen. Joe Biden's response to Tom Brokaw on Meet the Press Sunday is indicative, I believe, of just how flummoxed the Obama campaign is by the resurgence of Sen. McCain. There is an old adage--"if you strike the King (or in this case, the Queen), you must kill the King"--that applies perfectly.

The Obama campaign and its allies in the mainstream media and the sleazier blogs assumed that if they hurdled enough muck and injected enough poisonous lies, Palin would be neutralized, if not turned into a drag on the ticket. But that was always risky for the simple reason, as Brown delicately points out, "[T]he public already has grave doubts about the news media." People not only easily intuited the blatantly unfairness, they also took an instant shine to the brilliant, articulate, and folksy governor.

Please take a few minutes to read Part Two, in which I talk about Biden's foray into the historic position of the Catholic Church on abortion. It was so painfully wrong that I felt a twinge of embarrassment on his behalf.

Please send me your comments at daveandrusko@hotmail.com.