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Editorial
Media Sets Obama Up
For GOP Knock Down
In this election year the media has, once
again, shown how it can become monolithic by tacitly accepting and adopting
a collective viewpoint. This time it is that Barack Obama is the candidate
to watch, the candidate to devote major TV and print time to discussing, and
to do so virtually without critical scrutiny.
This is a massive disservice to the
Democratic Party’s primary voters and to Mr. Obama because it creates a
false image of the candidate as a man who is largely invincible, who is all
he says he is in every way, who is all he aspires to be, and it leaves the
illusion that he will be able to weather all political attacks to win in
November and create a dynamic new political reality.
The media that has created this false
reality by leaving the Democratic primary voters with a sense that within
the national news spotlights, Barack Obama has been ‘vetted’ and not found
wanting, therefore they can be assured that nothing in his past appears very
damaging and reassured as they give their support to him that it’s unlikely
anything unexpected and critical will occur once he has the nomination.
Concomitantly, the media has scrutinized
Hillary Clinton without letup. When she succeeds, the reasons are critically
examined, and when she doesn’t, she is pilloried by punditry declaring that
the voters understand this or that negative fact about her candidacy, or her
life’s history with her husband. Yet since she has been so thoroughly vetted
over so many years, most of the current scrutiny is trivial nitpicking over
how Ms. Clinton laughs, whether her tears are real, how she is a more boring
speaker, and how she adapts her campaign to changing circumstances.
It’s possible, of course, that Mr. Obama
may well be the best candidate, and he may be the right man to roll back the
right-wing policies that George Bush and his often invisible co-president,
Richard Cheney, have imposed upon America to bring the nation to its knees
in the current overall malaise. But because he is not being equally vetted
by the media, the print press and TV news have done a massive disservice to
the Democratic Party’s primary voters.
The media has given Barack Obama a pass
every time he is confronted with uncomfortable questions, such as those
regarding his personal real estate ventures, his apparent willingness to
borrow speech elements from his friend Deval Patrick, the current governor
of Massachusetts, or about his claim to youthful drug use, the Muslim
origins of his middle name, his wife’s recent remark to the effect that
‘this is the first time in my life that I have been able to feel proud of my
country,’ or even about why he used Barry instead of Barack when he was in
high school.
Mr. Obama is allowed to simply
assume a dismissive manner, snapping shut further discussion by declaring
the issue irrelevant or inappropriate or inconsequential. And the media
accepts that, pats itself on the back as having at least introduced the
uncomfortable questions to Mr. Obama, then moves on to report his uplifting
words, his great poise, how many worshipful crowds are attending his events,
and how much money is pouring into his campaign. The Republican Party will
not be so passive or kind.
Much of this is very human. Many reporters
and editors, who lived through the ups and downs of the Clinton years, see
the overall Clinton story as old, a bit tarnished and, ironically, now
smacking of ‘the establishment.’
That Hillary and Bill Clinton
can now be seen as part of the establishment should be a positive. The
Clintons endured and emerged at least alive and functioning after the
massive and unrelenting attacks of the right-wing that was, let’s recall,
the powerful establishment in Washington since Ronald Reagan and George H.W.
Bush, and in Congress beginning in 1995 with Newt Gingrich.
But the Clintons overcame all
the adversity and the largely unfair attacks, and even survived the seamy
revelations of Bill’s extra-marital sex life. In the end they have become
more established, more powerful, especially given that hindsight allows
everyone to remember that times were good in America when Bill Clinton was
president, as well as recalling that Hillary Clinton has proven to be an
extraordinarily effective, liberal senator.
So now the media, in its
enamored rush to showcase the beautiful language and soaring conceptual
images of Barack Obama simply brushes over Hillary Clinton as old news, part
of the tired and worn established bureaucracy. Her history is a negative.
And this situation is compounded by how much the press collectively loves to
make itself the main story; tune in now to hear how this or that is failing,
or this or that is working, etc.
This is more than unfortunate.
Republican’s could not be more delighted.
In fact, those who control the media, who are overwhelmingly Republican, have
this time been happy to give free rein to the editors and reporters
captivated by the remarkable Mr. Obama. But that won’t last. If Barack Obama
gains the Democratic nomination, such latitude will cease at once.
Then it will be John McCain and his
Republican campaign that will once again raise those very same questions,
and more, and this time the media will not give Mr. Obama a pass, he will
not be able to be dismissive. He will be forced to discuss each and every
one of these issues, and others that are offshoots or are already being held
in abeyance by the GOP, just waiting for the opportune moment.
Suddenly the media will be the watchdog
again, snapping at Mr. Obama, raising suspicions, casting aspersions, and in
the end deflecting the Democrats from delivering their message. At that same
time some pundits will suddenly have great insight and remember that the GOP
couldn’t mount such attacks against Hillary Clinton, because it’s all been
said before, and she’s weathered them all. She has been the most thoroughly
attacked and vetted candidate in recent history, if not in all electoral
history. The pundits will then ponder what the election would have been like
if the GOP had to confront her, a tested and battle hardened combatant in
the political wars the right-wing GOP has initiated and conducted
relentlessly over the past thirty years.
That is why it is such a travesty that
Barack Obama is not being vetted now by the America media. Once again, it isn’t
surprising that the media is held in such low esteem by the public; this is just
another brutal example of how the national media, print and TV alike,
snooker everyone.
2/24/2008 MB
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