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The media's latest hit job, and what we must do (UPDATED w/ media contacts) by VirginiaDem
Thu Mar 20, 2008 at 05:02:01 AM PDT
Think about this for a moment. Right now, the biggest media story so far during this election year hasn't been something a candidate has done during his or her professional life. Or something a candidate has said while on the trail. Or some aye vote or nay vote or failure to vote. Or really something the candidate did in his or her personal life, however irrelevant to the office sought.*
No, the biggest story of the campaign is what someone that a candidate has known said outside of that candidate's presence, despite the fact that the candidate himself has rejected those statements and has never said anything remotely similar.
VirginiaDem's diary :: ::
So, this story about statements made by Barack Obama's former pastor outside of Obama's presence is the story that's continuing to make the evening news (e.g., George Stephanopoulos commented tonight on ABC News) and pundits swoon. At the same time, the real news about John McCain repeatedly displaying a failure to understand the true dynamics affecting (or not affecting) the Iraq war he wants to continue -- contradicting the premise of his entire campaign based on foreign policy experience and knowledge -- has received minuscule attention in comparison.
And it's not just some fetish about religious leaders. As has been chronicled in diary after diary, when members of the religious right say outrageous things, those facts get a blip on CNN.com and then fade away each time. Indeed, in what is a pretty clear comparison, when it became known that a televangelist that John McCain sought out for an endorsement and stood on a platform with in mutual praise had made horrid, bigoted comments, the story got minor news attention while McCain rode out the storm. And now, while Obama is supposedly swooning because of the religious comments of his former pastor, McCain is at the height of his popularity. It's as if he never sought and touted the endorsement of a man who called Catholicism a "great whore" and believes scores died in Katrina because God hates gays. (UPDATE: From the comment, Rod Parsely may be an even better example. McCain's "spiritual adviser" recently said that Islam is a "false religion" and called for holy war.)
I have some theories, but I don't really have a definite explanation for this phenomena. Perhaps it's the media's desire to bring Obama down a peg to keep their beloved horse race alive. Perhaps the media thinks it'll get more ratings playing up the "angry black men" story (sort of like the flip to the "missing white girl" stories we always see). Perhaps the media has been played by McCain's maverick-ness or Hillary complaining. Perhaps the media is doing that thing it always does: trying to overcompensate for that "liberal media" meme. I don't know -- I'll leave that to others with more experience with analyzing the press.
What I do know is that the way the press has treated Obama recently is unfair. Not just unfair to him, but also unfair to their audience. It's the "swift boating" episode of this presidential campaign -- cheaply made video that distort reality, has nothing to do with policy issues or the candidate's credentials, and is being played on an endless loop to his detriment. It's a lie to associate Obama with these comments, and the media is playing into the hands of the liars by playing the video again and again.
Now, I wish Obama's campaign would start swinging against the press a little. Look how McCain was able to do with that New York Times story. Heck, he turned it into a fundraising opportunity and a base rallying moment. And we all know how Clinton gamed the press into joining her "kitchen sink mode" attacks. But, I don't see Obama's campaign going this route because I don't think they like working the press in such a manner. I think it's an honorable move to avoid whining about the media and solely address the underlying progressive issue at stake (race) head on -- in a speech for the ages, no less -- but perhaps it's a political mistake to not take a few swings at the Pat Buchanans of the world. However, unlike John Kerry, at least he's addressed the issue and has attempted a pivot in both his favor and to the benefit of advancing civil discourse in our nation.
Okay, but what can we do about all this?
Well, I've always felt that, despite our stronger numbers, arguments, and writers, the progressive blogosphere hasn't had the success that the right-wing bloggers have with countering and influencing the media.** Part of that is because the freepers have right-wing radio to help. Part of that is because the media loves running with the latest Drudge headline, out of laziness or maybe fear. Part of it is the reflexive "don't act liberal" tendency of the media. And perhaps the Bush administration and the GOP and their media enablers have given us so much material, it's hard for us to focus on one major media hatchet-job. There are a lot of Nedra Picklers and John Solomons out there. No matter. The right wing bloggers took down Dan Rather. They turned McCain's lobbying connections into a story about a "New York Times hatchet job." And now they and their allies are turning a story about Obama's former pastors comments (when Obama wasn't there) into some narrative that is meant to scare off white voters. This is what they're good at.
It's time for us to be better at it.
So, what we need to do is force a firestorm right now about the media. It's time to draw a line in the sand and create a new story: how unfair the media has been to Obama this past week. How Obama is getting swift-boated. How Obama is taking the high road by not blasting the media for taking a story he had nothing to do with and making it the #1 issue while the economy tanks and the War heads into its sixth year. Blast your blogs, diaries, and LTEs. Call into radio shows. Email the press, both local and national, both traditional and new media. Get our allies in on it too, like Media Matters and Keith Olbermann and Air America.
Because, you see, the swiftboating of 2008 is occurring right now, as you're reading this. Let's not wait until after it's over, after all the damage is done, to react. Analyzing this hit job a few months from now won't do Obama, or this nation, any good. Let's flip the script now. Repeat after me a thousand times: "Obama is being unfairly attacked by the media."
Here's an example and perhaps a spear point: Bill Kristol recently floated an out and out fabrication to further this Obama-Wright connection. The most he did was say, "Oops! I'm sorry!" Seriously, we should have been -- and should be -- calling for the New York Times to fire him for such an egregious lie. In fact, that moment was/is a perfect opportunity to turn this whole thing into an "unfair media" story. The right-wing media figures are so interested in pushing this non-story into a story that one of their key editorial writers based an article on a falsehood fabricated by a ultra right-wing media outlet. There's no story here, no real connection between Obama and these comments, so they have to invent facts and keep hammering the same video of words he never heard. Dan Rather was ousted for far less. Instead, Kristol is free to lie another day.
It's time to show the media that they've gone too far. Demand that Kristol gets fired from the most important and respected editorial page in the country. Let the reporters and the pundits and the producers know that the media has gone to far with this story in an overzealous attempt to attack Obama for whatever reason. Direct some fire at any opponents that dares use this swiftboating to their advantage. And if they keep going too far like this with Obama or any of our progressive candidates -- including Clinton -- we'll be back to demand more firings, boycotts, or whatever it takes to stop this nonsense.***
For that courageous speech this week, Obama deserves nothing less from us than our strength to fight for him. And, right now, it's the media that needs to hear us.
UPDATE: Here's one media contact list and another. I hesitated to include this earlier because I want this to be a sustained effort (for Obama and beyond). Such a list certainly excludes others media entities -- especially your local media -- that need contacting too, so we should all do some work and hunt down more.
UPDATE: Contact info for the New York Times. Let them know they should fire Kristol for his lie.
* Some might say that Obama's attendance in the church or his subsequent refusal to throw Wright under the bus are the issues. Nonsense. The controversy itself is about comments made by someone associated with Obama and nothing more. Reactions and associations are the indirect connections you can make between a candidate and any story not actually involving them.
** The only meaningful progressive blogosphere victory I recall is the "macaca" controversy. Feel free to remind me of any others.
*** We need to do this multiplied by a thousand. (Bloggers go to bat for Obama
by Eric Boehlert - http://mediamatters.org/columns/200803040004)
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2008/3/20/821/58744/871/450679
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