Why Does the Media and the American Public Allow McCain to Ignore the Facts with No Consequences?

[babylonsister]

Good question.


Mitchell Bard
Why Does the Media and the American Public Allow McCain to Ignore the Facts with No Consequences?

Posted August 19, 2008 | 05:08 PM (EST)

snip//

In his speech to war veterans yesterday, McCain had the nerve to accuse Obama of supporting Sen. Jim Webb's G.I. Bill only for political reasons. McCain claimed his own opposition to the bill was an effort to secure better legislation. McCain said: "As a political proposition, it would have much easier for me to have just signed on to what I considered flawed legislation. I'm proud to say that the result is a law that better serves our military, better serves military families, and better serves the interests of our country."

That all sounds nice, except that it's patently false.

The only change made to Webb's bill was a transferability provision (allowing spouses and family members to use benefits), and it was one that Webb said had been in the bill for six years (you can see Webb explain McCain's role in the legislation here). The bill didn't change, only McCain's position did. The real reason McCain relented had more to do with the fact that the G.I. Bill was attached to war spending legislation. McCain and Bush gave in to the veterans benefits to ensure getting their precious money to continue their endless war in Iraq. After all, on last night's edition of Countdown, Keith Olbermann noted that McCain had voted against more than $5 billion in veterans and military benefits in several pieces of legislation, covering such items as health care and equipment for the troops. Did all those bills have flaws, too?

Further evidence lies in the records of Obama and McCain on veterans legislation. The major veterans groups have given far superior grades in this area to Obama. Think Progress collected some of these ratings, pointing out that Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America gave McCain a grade of D on his voting record, while awarding Obama a B+; Disabled Veterans of America cited a 20 percent voting record on veterans issues for McCain, while Obama posted an 80 percent total; and Vietnam Veterans of America found that McCain sided with the organization's position only eight times in 23 votes, whereas Obama was with the group on 12 of 13 votes.

There is no way around the fact that by claiming to change the legislation and then supporting it, McCain was able to win political points, providing himself with some cover against charges that he has been largely AWOL in supporting legislation beneficial to veterans. So for McCain to accuse Obama of acting politically regarding Webb's G.I. Bill is not only wrong, but an example of McCain attacking Obama over something of which McCain himself is guilty.

And yet, McCain gets away with it.

more...

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/mitchell-bard/why-does-the-media-and-th_b_119899.html

[NJmaverick]

1. I say it's partly because groups like DU talk and don't act

if we organized and started email campaigns and the like, this wouldn't be a problem.

[blm]

2. Because corpmedia can always get the Dems to blame their candidate instead of corpmedia, and

many Dems have proven them right in the last 2 elections as they rely on corpmedia revisionism to undermine and attack the last two nominees.

[dkf]

3. Why do we let them?

Are we telling people what a load of crock he's spouting?

[babylonsister]

4. Some people are...

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132x6672268

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=132&topic_id=6672792&mesg_id=6672792

[Ashy Larry]

5. Because Democrats are too busy panicking over the latest poll numbers

Or attacking their own candidate for not saying and doing exactly what they want him to say and do.

[dkf]

6. If you couldn't tell things were changing without the poll numbers telling you so

you are a bit out of touch.

[Ashy Larry]

7. I don't know what you mean by that.

I didn't say things were not changing.

[Supersedeas]

8. when it comes to McRove, the Kelly O'Donnells of the Media Circus consider fact checking to be

nothing more than biased coverage--why should the fact check--it is more cost efficient to just repeat what the GoP hands them (reading is fundamental).

Critical analysis requires homework. That part of the budget is reserved for Obama.