Evening News Roundup - Even-handed coverage of "LipstickOnPigGate"

[jefferson_dem]

Via Halperin, if you're interested in such things.



All networks treated the farm animal/cosmetics controversy as more important than Iraq, the economy, and health care, and meta-attempted to hold the McCain campaign accountable for its crocodile tears, forgetting or ignoring Michael Deaver’s rule about the importance of pictures over editorial points on TV.

ABC: Led with the “lipstick” furor– the latest instance of “short-fuse politics.” Package explicitly refuted the McCain team’s claim, saying Obama had spoken for more than 25 minutes and never mentioned Palin, and played McCain using the expression three times on other dates. Next report looked at the tactic of exaggerating or distorting an opponent’s words, also mentioning McCain ad loosely rendering Obama’s comments about Iran as well as Obama saying McCain wants to fight the Iraq War for 100 years. Next, Stephanopoulos looked at the electoral map, said the candidates appear to have roughly the same number of electoral votes. Predicted that two trios– Ohio, Pennsylvania and Michigan; and Colorado, New Mexico and Nevada— could be decisive.

CBS: Led with “mud slinging politics” of “lipstick” back-and-forth. Reported Wednesday marked a “sharp turn away from the issues and into a bitter war of words,” Larry Sabato said the situation benefits the McCain camp. Covered Obama’s response to “lipstick” controversy and previewed Letterman appearance. “Reality Check” played clips of McCain and Cheney using the “lipstick on a pig” expression and challenged accuracy of McCain ad on sex education. Ran piece on how Palin can “serve as a role model” for parents of Down syndrome children. Briefly mentioned that Palin is en route to Alaska.

NBC: Approached Obama’s “lipstick” remark gingerly, highlighting how one conservative commentator called the flap “beyond stupid,” recounting how many other politicians have used the expression. Said the back-and-forth threatens to push the real issues off to another day, and the skirmish seemed to be sidetracking Obama off the issues. Aired portion of McCain Telemundo interview where he derided the “negativism” in the campaign. Chuck Todd noted the McCain camp can’t afford to have too many campaign days about President Bush, the economy, needs to “create these distractions.”

http://thepage.time.com/2008/09/10/evening-news-roundup-148/

[spanone]

1. k&r

[samplegirl]

2. It even showed McCain using the same phrase

three times.

[Rosa Luxemburg]

3. The National Enquirer looks good compared with the MSM!

[riverwalker]

4. "farm animal/cosmetics controversy" bwaaahaaaa

(now how do I clean Michelob off my keyboard?):rofl:

[doc03]

5. The Obama campaign has to come out with

a "Lipstick on a pig" T-shirt

[Gabi Hayes]

6. that means the dems got the worst of it. and they did, from what I flipped around, watching.

the reason is that the analysts ALL said that McCain wins with this sort of coverage, because it takes him off message, and stops the issues from being discussed

they DID NOT mention that they didn't HAVE to cover it, and they are CULPABLE for BS like this ever being discussed seriously

they DON'T have to cover it

do they?

Halperin is an example of the worst sort of pseudojournalism. don't ever take a thing he says at face value

OK...eating a little crow here...while looking for the Boehlert review of his book, I found this:

http://mediamatters.org/items/200809100007

COOPER: We're also joined now CNN senior political analyst, David Gergen, and Time magazine's political guru, Mark Halperin. David, much ado about nothing?

GERGEN: Yeah, it was -- listen, you can say all you want. John McCain said this about Hillary Clinton's health care proposal, but it was still a foolish thing for Barack Obama to say, because every night is precious for him, Anderson, in terms of getting his message out. This is one night lost on your program, where his message got muffled by this silliness over lipstick on a pig.

COOPER: It -- Mark, you're shaking your head.

HALPERIN: Stop the madness. I mean, this is, I think -- with all due respect to the program's focus on this and to what David just said -- I think this is the press just absolutely playing into the McCain campaign's crocodile tears. I wouldn't --

COOPER: Crocodile tears?

HALPERIN: Yeah. They don't think this is sexist.

COOPER: They know exactly what it is.

HALPERIN: They know exactly what he was saying. It's an expression. And this is a victory for the McCain campaign, in the sense that, every day, they can make this a pig fight in the mud. It's good for them, because it's reducing Barack Obama's message even more.

But I think this is a low point in the day in his -- and one of the low days of our collective coverage of this campaign. To make even -- to spend even a minute --

COOPER: Right.

HALPERIN: -- on this expression, I think, is amazing and outrageous.

COOPER: Let's move on.

-----------------------------


this is what I looked for:

Books about politics and the press don't come much more dishonest, or depressing, than the new tome hitting stores this week, The Way to Win (Random House). Written by corporate media bigwigs Mark Halperin, political director of ABC News and founder of its political newsletter The Note, and John F. Harris, national political editor of The Washington Post, the new digest -- it's their take on how to win the White House -- is already being toasted by celebrity journalists inside the Beltway, which in today's environment means the book politely re-enforces preferred conventional wisdom and graciously avoids asking tough questions about Republicans. The press corps also skates by in the eyes of Halperin and Harris, who continuously rewrite recent history in order to ensure that journalists shoulder little or no blame for D.C. pressroom disgraces such as Whitewater, the blatantly dishonest coverage heaped upon Al Gore's presidential campaign, and for the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth hoax that ensnared Sen. John Kerry's 2004 presidential run.

I say The Way to Win is dishonest because Halperin and Harris are obviously smart professionals who understand how politics and the press now (unfortunately) work in this country. Indeed, the two are celebrated as among Beltway journalism's best and brightest and are paid handsomely for reaching the pinnacle of their profession. Unfortunately, political journalism isn't what it used to be, and unfortunately, the duo opts to conform to the artificial guidelines that dictate public debate inside the Beltway today.

That's precisely why CBS' Bob Schieffer has already flacked the book on Face the Nation, why Charlie Rose has invited the two for an intimate chat, and why the Way To Win D.C. book party was awash with boldface guests, as elites from the press and politics flocked to toast the latest re-writing of the conventional wisdom. It's because Halperin and Harris tell a reassuring story that Beltway players, particularly in the press, love to hear. And for anybody who still thinks there's an ounce of friction between the true media elites and the Beltway's mostly Republican ruling class, read The Way to Win and think again. The Beltway really has become a tension-free world where journalists and politicos bond effortlessly.

Among the most important of Halperin and Harris's take-away tips -- their so-called "Trade Secret" -- is for candidates seeking the White House in 2008 to basically not act like Democrats. Specifically, Halperin and Harris stress that recent campaigns by Gore and Kerry failed because they lost control of their public image via the press, in sharp contrast to Bush's campaigns, which, thanks to the hard work of Karl Rove, were able to control their public image. What Halperin and Harris absolutely refuse to acknowledge is the willing role the press played in those key Democratic setbacks and the media's shrieking double standard that's been on display for the last decade.

http://mediamatters.org/columns/200610030008

[doc03]

7. I don't think so, it took the MSM attention away from

Miss Piggy for a day and it got Obama's point about McCain just being another 4 years of the Bush Administration.