CORRUPTION
Posted at 7:03 p.m. ET
I've discussed media bias regularly at Urgent Agenda. I think, given the sheer extent of i it this year, that we can cautiously escalate the vocabulary and call it what it's become, media corruption. Corruption is a painful word to use about my old profession, but that is what we are seeing.
Occasionally an article comes along that perfectly describes this tragedy. Kirsten Powers, an active Democrat whom we often see on Fox News defending the Democratic cause, has the courage to speak out in a piece in today's New York Post. What she is describing is a profession abdicating its responsibility, and trading in its greatest asset, its credibility, for a place in the Obama universe:
Barack Obama's choice of Joe Biden as his running mate prompted a small wave of warnings about Biden's propensity for gaffes. But no one imagined even in a worse-case scenario such a spectacular bomb as telling donors Sunday to "gird your loins" because a young president Obama will be tested by an international crisis just like young President John Kennedy was.
Scary? You betcha! But somehow, not front-page news.
Again the media showed their incredible bias by giving scattered coverage of Biden's statements.
Well Kirsten, stay goodbye to an invitation to the inaugural ball.
Exceptions?
There were a few exceptions. On MSNBC's "Morning Joe," co-host Mika Brzezinski flipped incredulously through the papers, expressing shock at the lack of coverage of Biden's remarks. Guest Dan Rather admitted that if Palin had said it, the media would be going nuts.
I never thought I'd be praising Mika Brzezinski or Dan Rather, but we surprise ourselves, don't we?
And Biden is the foreign-policy gravitas on the Democratic ticket, so his comments are actually even more disconcerting.
But please, we don't want to damage The One, do we?
The outtakes of his Sunday remarks don't begin to capture the magnitude of what he said. After warning the crowd that there would be some sort of international incident - Biden could think of four or five scenarios - he told the donors: "We're gonna need you to use your influence, your influence within the community, to stand with him. Because it's not gonna be apparent initially, it's not gonna be apparent that we're right."
What does that mean? Obama's election would provoke an international incident because of his inexperience and even Obama's biggest supporters won't be reassured by his response?
Yes, that's what it means.
"There are gonna be a lot of you who want to go, 'Whoa, wait a minute, yo, whoa, whoa, I don't know about that decision.' "
Biden is telling us that, at a time when Americans need to feel confidence in their government, they will be going "Oh my God." Not a great message.
Needless to say, if Sarah Palin said this about a McCain administration, the media world would be exploding.
Of course. Compare, please, the coverage of Biden's nutbaggery with the coverage of Sarah Palin, who apparently now holds press availabilities on her plane, and has become quite adept.
Whether you believe Biden is exaggerating, as he is known to do, or is providing real insight, the double standard in the media does even more damage to their lagging brand.
Part of the problem is their "Obama love," but we're also seeing the media elite's belief - prejudice - that anyone with an R behind their name is dumb. So, if they say something dumb, they must be dumb. A Democrat, like Biden, can make wildly inaccurate or outrageous comments and they are ignored because the TV and press insiders feel they "know who he really is."
From my own experience in journalism, I can attest to what Kirsten Powers is saying. Journalists think "they know." They often don't. But they must make us think that they do.
On the stump recently, Sen. Biden declared he had "three words" for what the nation needs: "J-O-B-S."
Lucky for him, his name isn't Dan Quayle, or that would have followed him for the rest of his career.
Thank you, Kirsten. If the Dems throw you out after this, you're always invited to my house.
October 22, 2008. |