Documents Show Mainstream Media Colluded To Protect Obama During Election
Tuesday, July 20, 2010 at 9:40AM I have long said that the mainstream media is the true enemy of the Republic. This outstanding investigative piece by the Daily Caller supports that position.
Gwen Ifill, moderator of one 2008 presidential debate.Watching this all at home were members of Journolist, a listserv comprised of several hundred liberal journalists, as well as like-minded professors and activists. The tough questioning from the ABC anchors left many of them outraged. “George [Stephanopoulos],” fumed Richard Kim of the Nation, is “being a disgusting little rat snake.”
Others went further. According to records obtained by The Daily Caller, at several points during the 2008 presidential campaign a group of liberal journalists took radical steps to protect their favored candidate. Employees of news organizations including Time, Politico, the Huffington Post, the Baltimore Sun, the Guardian, Salon and the New Republic participated in outpourings of anger over how Obama had been treated in the media, and in some cases plotted to fix the damage.
In one instance, Spencer Ackerman of the Washington Independent urged his colleagues to deflect attention from Obama’s relationship with Wright by changing the subject. Pick one of Obama’s conservative critics, Ackerman wrote, “Fred Barnes, Karl Rove, who cares — and call them racists.”
Michael Tomasky, a writer for the Guardian, also tried to rally his fellow members of Journolist: “Listen folks–in my opinion, we all have to do what we can to kill ABC and this idiocy in whatever venues we have. This isn’t about defending Obama. This is about how the [mainstream media] kills any chance of discourse that actually serves the people.”
“Richard Kim got this right above: ‘a horrible glimpse of general election press strategy.’ He’s dead on,” Tomasky continued. “We need to throw chairs now, try as hard as we can to get the call next time. Otherwise the questions in October will be exactly like this. This is just a disease.”
(In an interview Monday, Tomasky defended his position, calling the ABC debate an example of shoddy journalism.)
Thomas Schaller, a columnist for the Baltimore Sun as well as a political science professor, upped the ante from there. In a post with the subject header, “why don’t we use the power of this list to do something about the debate?” Schaller proposed coordinating a “smart statement expressing disgust” at the questions Gibson and Stephanopoulos had posed to Obama.
“It would create quite a stir, I bet, and be a warning against future behavior of the sort,” Schaller wrote.
Tomasky approved. “YES. A thousand times yes,” he exclaimed.
The members began collaborating on their open letter. Jonathan Stein of Mother Jones rejected an early draft, saying, “I’d say too short. In my opinion, it doesn’t go far enough in highlighting the inanity of some of [Gibson's] and [Stephanopoulos’s] questions. And it doesn’t point out their factual inaccuracies …Our friends at Media Matters probably have tons of experience with this sort of thing, if we want their input.”
Reader Comments (7)
Well, we know the mainstream media won't rat themselves, otherwise, this would be a HUGE story. This really is about the foundation of the country. We no longer have a fair press. It is almost completely biased toward the LEFT and goes out of its way to manipulate situations to help them. I hope more comes out about this. Kudo's to Daily Caller for its work on this.
In total the journalism profession consists of vapid blowhards who are overly impressed with their own self importance. They add nothing of measurable value to society, but they've defined a role which they delude themselves into believing serves the public good. That role being attempting to interpret or bias reporting in such a way as to sway public opinion in favor of leftist, statist, collectivist idoelogy. They are enemies of a free society.
Pundit: Love the photo. Was that your Photoshop skills at work? Top notch job.
That one is not my work Bruce. Found in a google search, but without attribution. It is a good one!
This story is a main "lead" on Rush's show today. This story by the Daily Caller adds further evidence that the MSM is primarily press controlled by the liberal elite, and is no longer a legitimate source of unbiased news. They wield considerable power in the political process and need to be called to account for their actions. The executives of these news organizations need to answer for this to their shareholders.
As Pundit implied in the posting on Wright, Obama wouldn't have had a chance in the election if the MSM hadn't been in his corner.
How did we get here?
Is there really a conspiracy on the far, or not so far, left?
I came to the US from the USSR a little over 20 years ago, and have seen this gradual decline in the media take hold, like cancer, one day at a time.
I really see no way out of this situation at this time... I hope someone else does.
Dmitry, I can understand your consternation at the thought of the USA becoming the USSA, and make no mistake, 'progressives' , Democrats and of course the entire Obama admin. believe in the failed socialist model. But remember, this is America. and despite having a (thankfully dying) corrupt dinosaur media, the Libs are still not getting the statist message through. More and more, people are realizing that the MSM in this country have devolved into the Democrat party state news, and that their agenda does not allow any dissent. Despite the endless obfuscations and outright lies told in support of our first full blown Marxist president, people no longer believe it.Full blown progressivism is finally on display in all its hideous glory and Americans are gradually waking up to the fraud. Have faith, Dmitry, real Americans are pissed and there is a great awakening among the populace. But don't expect the MSM to breathe a word about it. Bottom line: socialism/ liberalism/ progressivism, or whatever they are calling it today, doesn't work, and never will. people are wising up. If Obama wants to turn the US into a hybrid of Zimbabwe and Communist Russia (and I think he does), it's not going to happen without a big fight. And Obama will lose. Keep the faith!