People continues Obama lovefest

Dec 1, 2008 at 10:09 PM
8 comments

More media bias? In People’s report on the failure of Rosie O’Donnell’s variety show (big surprise there), it noted:

The night was dominated by an ABC televised interview with Barack and Michelle Obama by O’Donnell's View nemesis Barbara Walters.

Um, no it wasn’t. The network and programme that won the evening in the US were CBS and its horrid Criminal Minds. And dominated is a strong word—especially when it’s untrue.
Someone needs to tell People that Barack Obama has already won the presidential election and it can stop campaigning to make him look good. Many people think he’s doing a pretty good job of that himself.

8 comments

Jack Yan’s rating:

★★★★

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Jack;
Thank you for keeping a focus on this media misbehavior. For the conservative American it just looks like sour grapes at this point until Barack makes a major boneheaded move. But the bias is still prominent in the MSM.

I was thinking about this more, Judge Bob—through most of my lifetime most Republican presidents, apart from 41, have been painted as stupid. Ford was painted as an oaf when in fact he was one of the most compassionate men in politics; Reagan was painted as senile yet history may remember him rather better; and the current president, too, has been painted as moronic—but morons do not get degrees from Yale and Harvard, nor are they attacked for being too smart by their opponents, which happened to George W. Bush in 1978 when he ran for Congress. On the other hand, the Democratic presidents are usually given an easy ride in the media, with maybe the exception of Jimmy Carter toward the end of his term. Hindsight treats John F. Kennedy well though I think he made some blunders and he was certainly not faithful to Jacqueline; while Harry S Truman was probably the worst postwar president yet he is fondly remembered. Bill Clinton is still talked about in glowing terms, his sexual misbehaviours forgotten as quickly as J. F. K.’s.
This presidential election truly showed that bias. Last time, it was there, but it was not so obvious.

Zak Klemmer replied to Jack Yan’s comment:
Dec 2, 2008
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If the media here gave a Republican fair treatment it would be headline news.

Jack Yan replied to Zak Klemmer’s comment:
Dec 2, 2008
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It certainly would. I was a bit young to analyse the media then, but did Reagan do better in the last years of Carter and in his first years till the mid-terms? I do remember his second term was far less popular. However, I do agree that this tends to be the exception rather than the rule.

I was just turning voting age when Reagan was running for his first term. I can remember the gas shortages under Jimmy Carter's presidential policies and I can remember when Reagan called for the Soviets to tear down 'this wall'. Jimmy left the office in disgrace and lost in his bid for a second term to Reagan largely because of the Iranian hostage crisis and Reagan left the office after a second term with enough popularity to win Bush 1 the office. Bush 1 lost in his bid for a second term to Clinton and Clinton left the office after a second term disgraced enough to cost Al Gore. This race was lost on the performance of the Republican Congress from 2006. The failing of the this Bush administration was in giving up the communications war every Republican has had to fight. That and the fact that Barack had a simple message and the people want to put the race issue to bed.

The media picked McCain for the primaries and they picked Barack for the Dems. Then they picked Barack for the general. All that added up to the perfect storm against the Republicans in Congress, in the White House and for many local races as well.

It’s true that President Bush gave up the media war for the most part. Even Reagan kept it up to the end.

Reagan was known as the great communicator. He is a special case even among Republicans.

But he was also very skilful in using the media. One rule, for example, was keeping the media at a distance, especially unfriendly journalists like Sam Donaldson. By placing them near the back, Reagan could pretend to ignore their questions and give them no footage with which to attack him. I think he out-thought the mainstream media and was one step ahead. Reagan’s real genius, in my mind, was his writing his own radio addresses and speeches in many cases, far more than he was ever given credit for.

People continues Obama lovefest

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