Vote '08

Thanks to all who weighed in on my question I posed to you: is the media giving Obama coverage that’s a little too favorable?

Here’s what some of you had to say:

“Of course it is unbalanced! It has been since Obama announced his campaign for the presidency. No one in the news media has questioned him why, if he is interested in the Iraq situation, he has not visited in the last 900 days.” - Louis Priddy

“I think Obama gets more coverage and positive feedback from the media no matter what he does.” - Lisa

I’m sure that it wasn’t meant to be biased, but the on-going coverage of Mr. Obama makes many believe that “the news media” is looking for another champion. I truly wish that all news media would just report the news and not try to make or sway it. That tends to not only take away credibility from the news agencies, but it also leads many to just “down-right” distrust them. That’s not at all good; not for the media and certainly not for the country. At least try to show the better side of both candidates and not just point out their mistakes. Thank you for at least asking. - C. Waller

Thanks again, & I hope you all comment a lot more in the future.

A thought. I think some of the concerns people have is not that they themselves are swayed by the media, but that there are countless others who will be. I would recommend to those of you who feel this way to sit back & take a deep breath. You yourselves have figured out how to tell facts from bias - it’s a different world with the internet, & that’s forced us all to be more skeptical, but at the same time, do more homework. You should have faith that the rest of the American electorate is learning this as they go, too. It goes back to the advice that we should vary our media diet & decide for ourselves what is “fact” & what is “bias.”

& most importantly: Do not make your choice for president this November based on who gets favorable or unfavorable media coverage! It’s your patriotic duty to make your decision based on YOUR feelings about a candidate, not the media’s!

The above two photos proportionally represent the amount of media coverage each candidate is getting this week.

Obama has been criticized by members of the right wing for making the trip. Yet these same folks were running a countdown on the days it’s been since Obama visited Iraq or Afghanistan.. in fact, that countdown still remains on the main page of GOP.com. To those who criticize Obama for making this trip, I ask you: what’s your proposed alternative? That he not go? Isn’t that what you criticized him for in the first place?

Many have criticized the media for adding to the Obama-overseas-mania for having all three network news anchors visit him while he’s abroad. Dee Dee Myers, former Bill Clinton press secretary & Hillary Clinton 2008 supporter asks in Vanity Fair “Is the Media Trying to Elect Obama?” One could make that case, but please tell me the last time you thought the three network news anchors were relevant in any way. Far fewer people consider “the big 3″ when getting their news these days than ever before. Those who would inflate this trip as a pure example of media bias would do well to remember this.

It is news. You can’t not cover it.

Plus look at this poll from ABC News that shows Obama lags far behind McCain in terms of who’d make a better commander-in-chief. This trip is necessary for any candidate, Democrat or Republican, who faces those numbers.

& besides, McCain should consider himself lucky that he’s out of the spotlight a little more this week:

p.s., Senator McCain: Czechoslovakia doesn’t exist anymore. He had better be careful with these gaffes, because there is a good chance that the media will start paying closer attention to them as November draws near.

What do you think? Is the coverage of Obama’s overseas trip unbalanced? Should he have just stayed at home? Time for you to weigh in!

It’s evident that the Chuck Todd quote we featured earlier this week — “that everything [the McCain campaign] do[es] from here on out will be an attempt to make this election a referendum on Obama.” — is the truth, either because of or in spite of McCain’s efforts.

Here’s a look at a series of gaffes & awkward moments that McCain & his supporters made this week - which were generally ignored in the mainstream media:

1.

“Americans have got to understand that. Americans have got to understand that we are paying present-day retirees with the taxes paid by young workers in America today. And that’s a disgrace. It’s an absolute disgrace and it’s got to be fixed.”

It seems odd that McCain is criticizing the system that’s been in place since the Great Depression - I think he was meaning that we haven’t addressed the looming problem of the baby boom generation retiring & bankrupting the system — but it’s hard to tell. More on that (& an attempt to get a clarification from the McCain campaign) here.

Had Barack Obama characterized the Social Security system this way, it would have been all we had heard about this week.

2.

Yesterday’s incident re: Phil Gramm’s boneheaded comments that we’re “a nation of whiners.” Probably much to the McCain campaign’s chagrin, Gramm said yesterday he sticks by his comments. Not good. & who’s supposed to be the elitist in this race?

Had Barack Obama called us “a nation of whiners” & the economic downturn we’re in a “mental recession,” he’d be tarred & feathered from nearly all sides.

3.

(above clip is audio only)

Iraqi prime minister Nouri al-Maliki & other Iraqi leaders called for a timetable for U.S. withdrawl this week. First, McCain said

“Since we are succeeding, then I am convinced, as I have said before, we can withdraw and withdraw with honor, not according to a set timetable,” he said. “And I’m confident that is what Prime Minister Maliki is talking about, since he has told me that for many meetings we’ve had.”

Then he conceded that it was an accurate statement, but was probably just a political ploy to curry favor with his own people and would not influence his determination to keep US troops in Iraq indefinitely.

& that’s a flip flop from what he said about the matter in 2004:

Question: “What would or should we do if, in the post-June 30th period, a so-called sovereign Iraqi government asks us to leave, even if we are unhappy about the security situation there?”

McCain’s Answer: “Well, if that scenario evolves than I think it’s obvious that we would have to leave because — if it was an elected government of Iraq, and we’ve been asked to leave other places in the world. If it were an extremist government then I think we would have other challenges, but I don’t see how we could stay when our whole emphasis and policy has been based on turning the Iraqi government over to the Iraqi people.”

Had Barack Obama gone back & forth on the meaning of Maliki’s remarks, he’d be branded as a “typical political flip flopper” who “says anything to get elected.”

4. This statement the McCain campaign released this week touted the support of his economic plan from 300 blue-ribbon economists. But the Politico reported that most of those economists did not realize what they were signing off to - most of them thought they were checking “yes” on a list of basic economic principles with which they agree, not necessarily “I endorse McCain’s plan.”

If Barack Obama tried this, the ads criticizing him for this would already be out.

5. This “joke:”

McCain said, noting that cigarettes are the biggest U.S. export to Iran, “maybe we can kill them all with cigarettes.”

Iran’s a big place with 80 million individuals. It doesn’t seem very funny to joke about killing them all off, especially when right now there’s a good chance that a majority of the country’s people would be willing to be friends with us. Not a good move.

If Barack Obama made a joke about killing off an entire nation, many people would be saying it was a gaffe that could doom his campaign.

6. McCain denied this week that he ever said he wasn’t an expert in economics, apparently forgetting the durability of videotape:

As with #4, we’d already be seeing GOP ads pointing out this contrast right now if Obama had tried to get away with this.

& finally, this exchange about health care coverage (birth control vs Viagra):

7.

Once again, just imagine the ads playing this clip in full if it were Obama fudging on an issue like this.

8. Finally, the right wing media machine made a huge tactical mistake jumping all over themselves to report the so-called “Jackson Hot-Mike Gaffe” on Thursday. Had they thought about it for two seconds, they would have realized that a day in which Iran conducts missile tests is a day that should be spent calling Obama’s rather thin foreign policy credentials into question, rather than what they did, which was to let their hatred of Jesse Jackson dictate their coverage of a story which ultimately, strategically puts Obama in a better position.

An opposing view: Time Magazine’s Mark Halperin says McCain & the GOP actually “won the week.” 

Now. If you take this post as pure slam on McCain or his policies, you would be wrong - that’s certainly not my intent. The point I’m trying to make is that you should definitely expect a double-standard in this race when it comes to how much attention the media pays to whom. Obama’s gaffes or misstatements, however minimal or consequential they are, will be maximized in the media, while McCain’s gaffes or misstatements will be minimized in the media. It’s not so much that the GOP candidate is “John McCain,” it’s that he’s “Not-Barack-Obama.”

What do you think? Post a comment!

from the pool report:

Mexico City

From Bret Hovell, with reporting from Adam-Aigner Treworgy

No news, good color. [wow, classic line -Vote08]

John McCain visited the Basilica of the Virgin of Guadalupe north of Mexico City. It was one of the holiest sites in the Roman Catholicism that Mexicans practice.

The Basilica was built in the 1970s after the original (which took more than a century to construct and was completed in the early 1700s) had foundation problems. The original still stands, and was reopened to the public some years later.

After a 16 minute motorcade ride with roads closed (and angry drivers honking in an unappreciative tone as we went by), McCain arrived at the Basilica and was greeted by Monsignor Monroy. They shook hands and shared introductions.

They walked into the church together and a few minutes later, Monroy and McCain walked up to the altar. McCain laid a wreath of white roses – traditional in the legend of the Virgin of Guadalupe – near the base of the painting.

He then received a description of the painting for several minutes.

Finally, he was blessed by Monsignor Monroy. For several minutes, according to reporters who were closer to the action (your pool was a football field away and had an obstructed view), the Monsignor had one hand on McCain’s forehead and another on his shoulder as he offered the blessing. Cindy McCain stood next to the Senator with her head bowed and her eyes closed.

After that, McCain moved to the “papal balcony” so named because John Paul II visited there (at least once, it looks like, and it seems to have occurred in 1999).

He looked out over the piazza which was very Italian in nature. The old basilica was to his left and in front was a huge square. Several people filled it, but most of them appeared to be professional photographers. He gave a wave or two and continued hearing from the Monsignor about the balcony and the church itself.

Back behind closed doors for candidate while the campaign decided that McCain would also do a little tour of the old basilica. Pool reassembled in front of it of the old basilica. McCain came in and stood just inside the doorway, continuing to hear from the Monsignor. (the pool could not hear any of this conversation) The inside of the old basilica was difficult to see as scaffolding filled almost all of it.

While McCain was still in the old Basilica a few reporters caught up with former Gov. Jeb Bush of Florida, in Mexico City on business. He joined McCain for all parts of his tour.

“I think he’s going to win,” Bush said about McCain. “He just needs to be himself and not let senator Obama redefine himself.”

I did not hear anything else of the conversation.

The legend of the Virgin of Guadalupe needs a little bit more research than I have given it if you are going to use it. [here you go - Vote08] But basically (with great thanks to Beth Fouhy) an Indian peasant in the 1400s – right as the Spanish were converting everyone to Christianity – saw the Virgin Mary, that she had come and spoken to him. Back at his village nobody believed him. He went back and saw Mary and she gave him a bed of roses (which were out of season - and hence McCain’s wreath of white roses at the church today) to make others believe, but they did not. On a third visit, she produced a garment that finally convinced his villagers of what he had seen. That garment is still held in the Basilica today. This is an enduring legend for Mexican Catholics, and it is near where this all is to have happened that the church stands today.

I thought this would be a good example of something that’s (usually) avaialble for both candidates each day, the “pool report.” It’s where one member of the gaggle of media members travelling with the candidate is tapped to write up the day’s events for other news services that can’t be there, & it’s mutually shared among all. They sometimes can be the source of humor (”Obama emerged from the gym, where he allegedly showered & changed clothes”) & most of the time can provide a window into the eye of the hurricane that is a presidential campaign. As you may have noticed at the top of the report, there was no real “news” in the report, other than the details of the visit. But most of the time that’s typical. We’ll try to highlight any good pool reports for you between now & November.

Great piece for those of you who aren’t necessarily political junkies from NPR’s Dick Meyer on how to ingest campaign news & commentary between now & November [I’ve underlined the passages which I believe are most essential & thus give my full-throated endorsement]:

“July 3, 2008 · The marathon of civic marketing and obsessive-compulsive horse-race political news coverage (also known as the 2008 presidential campaign) that began in December 2006 is now in a somewhat quiet state as it approaches the autumn stretch.

It has been a wild ride for political consumers, also known as voters. Much of it has been positive.

The primary season was uniquely fascinating and potentially historic. The drama of the primaries has been the great virtue: Clinton’s fall, Obama’s rise and McCain’s resurrection. The prospect of electing the first female or African-American president added gravitas to a campaign ritual that seemed to have lost any in recent years. The notion of electing a Republican war hero whose personality is anti-authoritarian and maverick has some fun civic mischief about it.

All this nourished more civic engagement than usual, more voting and more participation.

Still, the marathon has been hard to endure for many. Twenty-three months is an absurd amount of time for a campaign. The length of the campaign, its repetitiveness and high malarkey factor, along with the triviality of much of the coverage, are all frustrating.

Our 21st century campaigns have a postmodern aspect, where every voter is both a pundit and an analyst. Cable news networks spend hours upon hours showcasing heads talking about tactics. The gluttony of ads, stage-managed events and focus-group-tested sound bites of the candidates and their surrogates have a natural repugnance for Americans.

Still, it has been a great campaign. Since we’re so close to the finish line, consider trying some adjustments of temperament and philosophy to get the most out of the remainder of Campaign ‘08.

GRATITUDE. Few intense partisans will like this: In this election, more than any I have covered, the voters have much to be grateful for.

I think independent and moderate votes — that is, about 75 percent of the electorate — understand this already. For hard partisans, it would be prudent and satisfying to suspend the shackles of party, ideology and pet passions for a moment and look at John McCain and Barack Obama as vying for an impossible job. I believe these are two good men who have both spent their adult lives in service to their communities and country. I don’t think either is greedy, power-hungry or trivial. I know that is corny, but that is my argument.

I further believe both candidates are trying to campaign using less spin, claptrap and phoniness than in most recent campaigns. They are failing. But they are at least trying a nearly impossible task. We ought to acknowledge that, appreciate and vote for the candidate we respect most.

PERSONAL ACCOUNTABILITY. The amount and volume of news coverage and argu-tainment attention to this two-year campaign are painful to stomach. I grant that.

But you alone are responsible for the quality and quantity of political information you consume. “The media” are not. Neither are the candidates, the parties or the ad agencies. You are.

My strong counsel is to go on a media diet until Election Day. Consume less television, radio, cable, and print political news (especially cable!). Focus on hard news reporting. Most important, try to read and hear the candidates’ unmediated words. These are two statesmen who use plain English and avoid what linguists call “crafted speech,” that is, market-savvy sound-bite talk.

Most important, accountability means being as tough on yourself as you are on the candidates. This means asking if you really are so convinced that people who disagree with you on, say, abortion, gun control or global warming are evil rats. Is it true that people you disagree with “just don’t get it” or are “just biased”? Are you really as confident in the righteousness of your positions as you think you are? When you get into a heated political argument, are you able to keep listening?

DIVERSIFY. Don’t get all your news and views in one flavor.

If you lean right, make it a point to go beyond Fox News and The Wall Street Journal op-ed page. If you lean left, go beyond Huffington Post and The Nation. I hope my bosses aren’t reading, but if you are an NPR fan, find some other regular destinations. Do that no matter what your favorite news source is.

In short, take some time to see the campaign through someone else’s eyes.

Political empathy, the capacity to tolerate and even embrace the radically different views of others, is perhaps the cardinal civic virtue in a wildly pluralistic, diverse society. Remember what the money says: E Pluribus Unum. Radical tolerance is a skill of citizenship and statecraft that has atrophied in recent years.

All this takes effort. But generally in life, you get what you give. Enjoy the campaign.”

WASHINGTON (AP) - Family members say NBC’s Tim Russert has died. They tell The New York Times that Russert died of an apparent heart attack. The host of NBC’s “Meet the Press” was 58. Longtime NBC anchor Tom Brokaw confirmed Russert’s death, in a special report on NBC. Brokaw says Russert’s death came during a political campaign that “he loved.” He called Russert a “beloved colleague” and “one of the premier journalists of our time.”

There’s not much more to say. We’re all rather stunned, frankly. The entire newsroom stopped what it was doing just now to watch Brokaw’s special report. Meet the Press has long been a Sunday morning tradition in my household, especially during this year. It is a crying shame that Russert will not see how this race ends up. Please join me in saying a prayer for his family, especially his father, who’s about to have a tough Sunday.

UPDATE: John McCain’s statement:

“I am very saddened by Tim Russert’s sudden death. Cindy and I extend our thoughts and prayers to the Russert family as they cope with this shocking loss and remember the life and legacy of a loving father, husband and the preeminent political journalist of his generation. He was truly a great American who loved his family, his friends, his Buffalo Bills, and everything about politics and America. He was just a terrific guy. I was proud to call him a friend, and in the coming days, we will pay tribute to a life whose contributions to us all will long endure.”

UPDATE: Barack Obama responds:

“I considered him not only a journalist but a friend,” Obama said. “There wasn’t a better interviewer on television, a more thoughtful analysts about politics.” He was “one of the finest men I know,” said Obama.

“I am grief-stricken with loss and my thoughts and prayers go out to his family.”

UPDATE: President Bush issues a statement:

“Laura and I are deeply saddened by the sudden passing of Tim Russert. Those of us who knew and worked with Tim, his many friends, and the millions of Americans who loyally followed his career on the air will all miss him.As the longest-serving host of the longest-running program in the history of television, he was an institution in both news and politics for more than two decades. Tim was a tough and hardworking newsman. He was always well-informed and thorough in his interviews. And he was as gregarious off the set as he was prepared on it.

Most important, Tim was a proud son and father, and Laura and I offer our deepest sympathies to his wife Maureen, his son Luke, and the entire Russert family. We will keep them in our prayers.”

NewsChannel 9 is also attempting to get reaction from Tennessee 3rd District Congressman Zach Wamp, who called us to let us know he’d be willing to make a statement. Check NewsChannel9.com for the video of that once it comes in.

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..or at least for some of my colleagues in the media.

The above graphic was on the screen recently at Fox News, when they were talking about Hillary Clinton’s proposal that she & Obama have a “Lincoln-Douglas” style debate.

Wrong Douglas, guys.

Don’t believe me? Watch:

If pointing this out makes me an “elitist,” then guilty as charged.

(….sigh….)