Moonage Political Webdream

A lot is being made over the Republicans, me included, complaining how biased the media has been.  I could cite evidence all day and night if I felt like it.  I’ll just cite a couple of quickies from my own observations in no particular order:

Sarah Palin has been scrutinized mercilessly, criticized, and editorialized relentlessly over the fact one of her children is pregnant.  Earth shattering stuff that is huh?  Quite a few people are questioning whether she can handle the pressure of holding a job AND being a mother at the same time.  Not like that’s been tried before huh?  But, did you know Joe Biden has kids too?  Did you know one of Joe Biden’s boys is in serious legal trouble?

A son and a brother of Sen. Joseph R. Biden Jr. (D-Del.) are accused in two lawsuits of defrauding a former business partner and an investor of millions of dollars in a hedge fund deal that went sour, court records show.

The Democratic vice presidential candidate’s son Hunter, 38, and brother James, 59, assert instead that their former partner defrauded them by misrepresenting his experience in the hedge fund industry and recommending that they hire a lawyer with felony convictions.

The legal actions have been playing out in New York State Supreme Court since 2007, and they focus on Hunter and James Biden’s involvement in Paradigm Companies LLC, a hedge fund group. Hunter Biden, a Washington lobbyist, briefly served as president of the firm.

What’s that?  His brother’s in cahoots as well?  Won’t see that on CNN or MSNBC any time soon I’m sure.

Then of course, there was always the non-story of how Obama provides for his half-brother:

US presidential contender Barack Obama’s African half-brother says he is “ashamed” of his family ties because he lives as an impoverished recluse in a Kenyan shantytown.

The Italian edition of Vanity Fair says it tracked down George Hussein Onyango Obama living in poverty in a rundown shack in the violent town of Huruma on the outskirts of Nairobi.

George Obama, 26, is the youngest of the presidential candidate’s seven half-brothers and half-sisters.

He told the magazine: “No one knows who I am.”

That link’s not to the New York Times.  It’s to a source in AUSTRALIA.  The reason no one knows who George Obama is is because CNN and MSNBC and most media would just as soon no one find out.

But, Sarah Palin’s daughter is fair meat.  She hasn’t broken any laws.  And, her family, unlike Barack, is standing behind her.  That’s the media for ya.  That’s disgusting.

Some are doing it in a not-so-overt fashion, and I don’t even think intentionally or with any malice:

Yes, attacks on the media are popular, and both parties do it. However, the Republicans find themselves in a situation where they are rather unpopular and need to make a case about how they are going to fix the problems that the Bush administration has created. Instead, last night seemed to be not much more than attacks on invisible, amorphous enemies (i.e., liberals and the media) as if the party didn’t have to do any introspection or deal with the fact that their party’s president has an approval rating in the low 30s. McCain cannot win if he doesn’t find a way to deal with that reality. Attacking liberals and the media won’t cut it. The problems in Washington at the moment cannot be blamed on those actors, not by a long shot. Anyway, railing against the media and liberals is so 1980s.

Now, Steven is saying that in responding to perceived media bias, the Republicans are going after a boogeyman that doesn’t exist and are therefore not addressing the true issues that the media is discussing that creates this air of “bias”.   He even has several points of proof to support his point.  That’s more than most do.  However, I wrote a lengthy rebuttal to this one.  Rather than re-inventing the wheel, I’ll just pull it:

With the Democrat leadership popularity in the House and Senate in the teens, it can be very easily argued that the reality is that most people think less of the Democrat leadership than they do the Republican leadership ( being twice as popular at this time ). However, you will NEVER see that being mentioned by the “invisible, amorphous enemies”. So, needless to say, I think you are 100% wrong in your assumption that the only thing Republicans have to worry about are how “to fix the problems that the Bush administration has created”. They also have to worry about how to deal with the “invisible, amorphous enemies” that are broadcasting to the entire world every single day and minute on MSNBC, CNN, ABC, CBS, and NBC. And, quite often, here. I don’t think McCain ever considered the “invisible, amorphous enemies” his base. They may have been friendlier to him in the past when he wasn’t a Republican figurehead, but I’m quite certain he realized that in a competitive situation with a liberal Democrat, he’ll lose every single time with the “invisible, amorphous enemies”. And, so far, he pretty much has. How often have you criticized Obama’s invisible, amorphous plan for the future? How often have you criticized the “invisible, amorphous enemies” for dogging Palin’s children while ignoring Obama’s starving brother and Biden’s criminal son? It’s not so much that the “invisible, amorphous enemies” are once again doing what every Republican expects, it’s just sickening how blatant the bias is this time while those proclaiming to be fair and balanced attack those that are disgusted with how blatant it has become. I mean, think about it, why was the only news media even interested in John Edwards’ being busted in a hotel late at night after seeing a new mom the National Enquirer? No other “invisible, amorphous enemy” would touch it even though they were ready to pounce on Palin’s baby boy possibly being her daughter’s based on nothing but a blog post on Daily Kos?

The gyst being that the evidence used to support the argument that media bias is a boogeyman is horribly flawed, obviously to the point of being, well, biased.  Sure, Bush isn’t terribly popular, but Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid are horribly less so.  Any politician with one functioning brain cell could look and see that 30% is a LOT more than 17%.  So, the justification that the Republicans are shooting the messenger and ignoring the message is just wrong.  The messenger is dicking around with the message.  The message is the Democrat platform is not working.  The messenger chooses to ignore that message and tell the people the Republican platform is not working, regardless of the fact it has higher approval ratings.  And then, when whenever someone claims the messenger is dicking around with the message, the messengers complain about it.  So, how does the real message ever get delivered?  In most cases, that’s the point.

However, some people haven’t bought into the “shock at all costs” skewing of “news” in order to dictate social policy that seems to be media’s business model since the inception of CNN.  Here’s what I call some EXCELLENT reporting:

Last night, the Republican Party nominated Sarah Palin as its vice presidential candidate - a non-traditional pick that will help John McCain in some very traditional places. The Alaska governor is no stranger to blazing trails. And in this election she needs to do so in some familiar GOP geography. Here’s why.

The Obama campaign’s desire to reshape the electoral map is one of the most underreported twists in this presidential cycle. Beginning in the early 1970s, Republicans transformed the South and West into solid GOP bastions. Democrats lost the White House any time they failed to nominate candidates who could not compete in these regions. The gods of electoral votes punished them for not breaking through in these areas - think McGovern, Mondale, Dukakis, Gore and Kerry. 

Most media reporting about the Obama campaign focuses on his broad national message: the “yes we can,” “change” and “bringing people together” narratives. But equally transformative is the tactical side of the Democratic nominee’s efforts.

There’s a lot more, it’s an excellent read by Gary Andres.  Now, it’s got a touch of bias.  It talks about how novel Obama’s plan is, then points out it was first used by Bush.  

The Bush campaign deployed the same tactic in 2004.

Now, how does one use the same tactic four years before someone else?  So, have to take it with a grain of salt.  But, for the most part, it just simply takes a piece of information and lays it out there for all to dissect.

I like that.

That is reporting.

We need lots more “reporting” and a lot less “editorializing”.

And we sure as hell need a lot less political interference by the media.  No matter how much they whine about it.

Technorati Tags: bias, cnn, family ties, george obama, hunter biden, james biden, joe-biden, joseph r biden jr, legal trouble, Media, msnbc, paradigm, presidential contender, sarah palin, state supreme court, vanity fair, washington lobbyist

Tags: bias, cnn, family ties, george obama, hunter biden, james biden, joe-biden, joseph r biden jr, legal trouble, Media, msnbc, paradigm, presidential contender, sarah palin, state supreme court, vanity fair, washington lobbyist

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