I believe as sure as God made little green apples a lot of you on DKos are going to laugh at this title, blurting out "Uh yeah, why do you think we are on here? This in from Mr. Winky, water wet, sky blue, film at 11" Smart asses.
I am writing this just to vent my frustration at what a terribly inept press we have. I am a firm believer in the fourth estate, and in a democracy, we simply can't function without an attentive and vigilant press corp. (I think there is actually a quote on that from one of our founding fathers, but I'm too lazy to track it down) This is what gets my goat, more after the jump...
You really don't have to look any farther than the "lipstick" episode that we are experiencing right now. Several thoughts come to mind.
- Why can't the media say "lie?" - Throughout all of this, there have been some whoppers told, pure political horsemud, and yet the media loves terms like "distortion," "misstated," "exageration," etc. A lie to me has always been an untruth told with the intent to decieve. So how come it appears that the media has never heard a lie from a politician? While some have come out and hammered McCain on this, there are so many more who actually still talk about it in terms of strategy, i.e. it's smart, he's framing the argument, Obama's on his heels and so on. Why not a simple statement, "I saw the last McCain ad and I threw up in my mouth. He should apologize."
- The media is soft - In a similar vein, we have both Tweety and Carville talking extensively how vile the tactics are, yet go further to say that McCain must not know b/c it's far too honorable. Well, it's his name stamped onto the ad and it's been over 24 hours, so where is the apology? Why are his advocates going out and continuing to make this argument. James Carville calls Bill Richardson Judas, and the best he can come up with is "McCain's not responsible for this..." The son of a bitch is 72 years old, how much older does he have to get to be responsible for his campaign?
Here's Matthews and Carville via TPM
How do you lambast this ad, and then go on to say that. I guess you have to when you are only worried about saving your wife's job.
- Sometimes, even when you win you lose - The final part comes in the typical news cycle, something we have seen over and over from lipstick, to flag pins, to Rev. Wright.
Media playbook:
- Cover the topic, such as McCain's slime and decry it. Even though you admit it is a "distortion" and inappropirate (or sometimes you don't) you play it over and over, for maximum saturation. Then, when everyone cries "Enough" you follow up with several shows discussing the topic of wherther the media is covering it too much, with the equal amount of playback of the offending ad or tactic which you are criticized for overcovering. It's like watching monkey's play with their poo.- Equality - Then, so your completely fair, you must include something from Obama, b/c everything has to be equal, no matter how one side acts. I mean, you can't just have a story that McCain is a lowlife, what would Rove say? Gasp! So then we get the one liners about how Obama may have misused the 100 years quote at the end, so that the average news consumer, who isn't paying close attention, thinks its tit for tat.
McCain might be the world's biggest hypocrite, and he doesn't get called on it. Media, do your f'in' job. Some hints:
- McCain says he's the earmark king, yet Wasilla under Palin mae his pork list. - Bridge to nowhere. I am still waiting for someone to say to a McCain surrogate, "No we know that is not true. How do you expect anyone to give credibility to your positions when you say things that are varifiably a lie?" - Dirty ads. Let's finish this for once and all. The next McCain interview should have, "Senator, under your moniker, there have been some ads come out that some feel could not possibly have come fron you, so let's settle it - Are these your words, or are you unable to control your campaign?" - Sexism. Here's the next question. "Senator McCain, your campaign has accused Obama of playing the race card, so why are you now playing the gender card? Weren't you then calling Clinton a pig when you used the same expression to describe her health policy? Don't you have little room to talk since you are infamous for making a joke which insulted the looks of a teenage girl and the sexuality of our then Attorney General? If you are so pro-woman, how do you explain your insistence on sheltering your female running mate from the media? Isn't the media the collective group of people you used to refer to as "your base?" Do you think strong, independent women, with the qualifications that you say she has, need to be protected?It makes me wonder if at the 9/11 Memorial today, if McCain didn't turn to Obama and say, "Hey, it's just politics..." ala Bush to McCain in SC circa 2000.
How the wheel has turned