Bob,
Last night I saw a CNN report announce that Obama was the 'favorite
son' of the US in this election -- pretty incredulous to me -- who
bestowed 'favorite son' status on him?
v/r
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-----Original Message-----
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On
Behalf Of Bob Calco
Sent: Tuesday, October 28, 2008 9:22 AM
To: 'ProFox Email List'
Subject: [OT] Media Presidential Bias and Decline
http://abcnews.go.com/Business/Story?id=6099188&page=1
- - -
The sheer bias in the print and television coverage of this election
campaign is not just bewildering, but appalling. And over the last few
months I've found myself slowly moving from shaking my head at the
obvious
one-sided reporting, to actually shouting at the screen of my television
and
my laptop computer.
But worst of all, for the last couple weeks, I've begun -- for the first
time in my adult life -- to be embarrassed to admit what I do for a
living.
A few days ago, when asked by a new acquaintance what I did for a
living, I
replied that I was "a writer," because I couldn't bring myself to admit
to a
stranger that I'm a journalist.
...
That means constantly challenging our own prejudices, systematically
presenting opposing views and never, ever burying stories that
contradict
our own world views or challenge people or institutions we admire. If we
can't achieve Olympian detachment, than at least we can recognize human
frailty -- especially in ourselves.
...
Meanwhile, I watched with disbelief as the nation's leading newspapers,
many
of whom I'd written for in the past, slowly let opinion pieces creep
into
the news section, and from there onto the front page. Personal opinions
and
comments that, had they appeared in my stories in 1979, would have
gotten my
butt kicked by the nearest copy editor, were now standard operating
procedure at the New York Times, the Washington Post, and soon after in
almost every small town paper in the U.S.
But what really shattered my faith -- and I know the day and place where
it
happened -- was the war in Lebanon three summers ago. The hotel I was
staying at in Windhoek, Namibia, only carried CNN, a network I'd already
learned to approach with skepticism. But this was CNN International,
which
is even worse.
I sat there, first with my jaw hanging down, then actually shouting at
the
TV, as one field reporter after another reported the carnage of the
Israeli
attacks on Beirut, with almost no corresponding coverage of the
Hezbollah
missiles raining down on northern Israel. The reporting was so utterly
and
shamelessly biased that I sat there for hours watching, assuming that
eventually CNNi would get around to telling the rest of the story . but
it
never happened.
...
But nothing, nothing I've seen has matched the media bias on display in
the
current presidential campaign.
Republicans are justifiably foaming at the mouth over the sheer
one-sidedness of the press coverage of the two candidates and their
running
mates. But in the last few days, even Democrats, who have been gloating
over
the pass -- no, make that shameless support -- they've gotten from the
press, are starting to get uncomfortable as they realize that no one
wins in
the long run when we don't have a free and fair press.
...
No, what I object to (and I think most other Americans do as well) is
the
lack of equivalent hardball coverage of the other side -- or worse,
actively
serving as attack dogs for the presidential ticket of Sens. Barack
Obama,
D-Ill., and Joe Biden, D-Del.
If the current polls are correct, we are about to elect as president of
the
United States a man who is essentially a cipher, who has left almost no
paper trail, seems to have few friends (that at least will talk) and has
entire years missing out of his biography.
That isn't Sen. Obama's fault: His job is to put his best face forward.
No,
it is the traditional media's fault, for it alone (unlike the
alternative
media) has had the resources to cover this story properly, and has
systematically refused to do so.
Why, for example to quote the lawyer for Republican presidential nominee
Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., haven't we seen an interview with Sen.
Obama's
grad school drug dealer -- when we know all about Mrs. McCain's
addiction?
Are Bill Ayers and Tony Rezko that hard to interview? All those phony
voter
registrations that hard to scrutinize? And why are Sen. Biden's endless
gaffes almost always covered up, or rationalized, by the traditional
media?
...
The absolute nadir (though I hate to commit to that, as we still have
two
weeks before the election) came with Joe the Plumber.
Middle America, even when they didn't agree with Joe, looked on in
horror as
the press took apart the private life of an average person who had the
temerity to ask a tough question of a presidential candidate. So much
for
the standing up for the little man. So much for speaking truth to power.
So
much for comforting the afflicted and afflicting the comfortable, and
all of
those other catchphrases we journalists used to believe we lived by.
...
Furthermore, I also happen to believe that most reporters, whatever
their
political bias, are human torpedoes . and, had they been unleashed,
would
have raced in and roughed up the Obama campaign as much as they did
McCain's. That's what reporters do. I was proud to have been one, and
I'm
still drawn to a good story, any good story, like a shark to blood in
the
water.
So why weren't those legions of hungry reporters set loose on the Obama
campaign? Who are the real villains in this story of mainstream media
betrayal?
The editors. The men and women you don't see; the people who not only
decide
what goes in the paper, but what doesn't; the managers who give the
reporters their assignments and lay out the editorial pages. They are
the
real culprits.
...
In other words, you are facing career catastrophe -- and desperate times
call for desperate measures. Even if you have to risk everything on a
single
Hail Mary play. Even if you have to compromise the principles that got
you
here. After all, newspapers and network news are doomed anyway -- all
that
counts is keeping them on life support until you can retire.
And then the opportunity presents itself -- an attractive young
candidate
whose politics likely matches yours, but more important, he offers the
prospect of a transformed Washington with the power to fix everything
that
has gone wrong in your career.
With luck, this monolithic, single-party government will crush the
alternative media via a revived fairness doctrine, re-invigorate unions
by
getting rid of secret votes, and just maybe be beholden to people like
you
in the traditional media for getting it there.
And besides, you tell yourself, it's all for the good of the country .
- - -
This editorial by a life-long journalist really helps put the
horrifically
one-sided news coverage in perspective.
This is why so many of us on the right are frightful of a President
Obama.
It not be so if the media was doing its job, and not relegating all
legitimate criticism of The One to the some "negative campaigning"
bucket
when what they're doing is not even one iota more dignified than a
high-tech--soon to be state sponsored--campaign commercial.
- Bob
[excessive quoting removed by server]
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