McCain lost -- but the media treat him like a winner

http://mediamatters.org/columns/200904030023?f=h_top

by Jamison Foser

When Al Gore and John Kerry lost their presidential campaigns, the media had a clear message for them: Get out of the way and let George W. Bush govern.

As was often the case, Gore couldn't win with the media no matter what he did. When he lay low, they mocked him for growing a beard and gaining weight -- and suggested he should be doing more to represent the interests of those who voted for him. And when he did speak, the media dismissed him as an angry lunatic in need of psychiatric help. When he presciently spoke out in 2002 against rushing to war in Iraq, for example, they said he was crazy. (Years later, they adopted much of his critique as their own. They kept making fun of him, though.)

On CNN's Reliable Sources, The New Republic's Michelle Cottle described her colleagues' reaction to Gore's Iraq speech: "he vast majority of the staff believes this was the bitter rantings of a guy who is being politically motivated and disingenuous in his arguments." When they weren't attacking Gore, the media were ignoring him. On that same edition of Reliable Sources, host Howard Kurtz noted that television news organizations, including his own, didn't carry Gore's speech:

Al Gore delivered a major address this week. The former vice president sharply criticizing George Bush's handling of Iraq. But Gore's speech hit a thud on television. MSNBC was the only cable network to carry the whole address live, while Fox and CNN stayed with other programming. And the nightly network newscasts dealt with Gore's speech only briefly.

I remember Gore's January 2006 speech on MLKs birthday. Six years after he was robbed, he made one of the most important speeches since Bush stole the presidency.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2006/01/16/the-full-text-of-al-gore_n_13930.html

Meanwhile McGramps is all over the airways.

St. John Mc:evilgrin:

on Bill Moyers Friday. Glen tore Russert a new one.

http://www.pbs.org/moyers/journal/04032009/profile2.html

and donuts, too...



The beltway bubble runs on ego as much as anything. It's an exclusive club that by its consolidation of the media overstates its own importance and those that they cover. McCain knows this game and has always played to it...cultivating his "maverick" role, being both outspoke and accessible. In short...he made good copy and this is what drives the beltway stenographers. He is an inside player...playing telephone and doing the drinkie-drinkie parties. President Gore, on the other hand, avoided that clique...he didn't play the media games. Thus why one gets the pass while the other is still chastised. Almost all is ego...like a bunch of high school kids who don't like the smart guy cause he doesn't go to the same parties they do.

Corp Media has a Right Wing Agenda and are going to use what ever means they can employ to see to it the Right Wing stays in power or the message is heard.

This is in "Direct Conflict" with the 1934 FCC Act which mandated the Air Waves be used to serve the people of America

McCain is still a loser, through and through. That's a title he won, completely fairly.




Wow, I had no idea he was into rimming...

:rofl:

ever sought him out or made him the point guy of the "loyal opposition" like they do for McCain. If they ever spoke of McGovern it was as a loser.

was kicked to the curb by the press. Maybe not all their fault though. McGovern is a truly humble, ingratiating human being, who didn't seek the limelight or make controversial speeches. Maybe he was a bit too nice.

--imm

Don't think it's confined to just McCain. Listening to radio news at the top of the hour this week (while I was driving across the country), I heard plenty of Repub sound bites, and maybe half an adverbial clause from Obama. They are still loading the "news" with Repub talking points, neatly packaged into catchy slogans that even the dumbest yokel can repeat without stumbling.

They still want to interview the driver who drove the bus off the cliff and down the rocky embankment and ask him if he is all right and how he thinks he can get the bus back on the road.

every news channel pretty much had vastly more Republicans on than Democrats. I'm not sure if the trend has turned or not. It would be interesting to note. I think McCain is a special case. He's always been a media darling. Kerry pretty much went back to his pre-campaign coverage. Gore on the other hand seems to be savaged by the media despite generally being right.

Other than the media.

The reporters love that they get some attention... They use and feed one another.

I saw it last night but was too tired to post it. I'm glad you did it so I didn't have to.

K&R

William Crystal...never been right about anything.

Newt Gingrich...already run out of Washington once.

Bill O'Reilly...Didn't he promise to quit if thee were no WMD?

The list is endless, and they dominate the airwaves, especially the talking head "policy" shows.
Those who were WRONG are promoted and lauded....even in the OBama administration.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/01/19/obama-praises-mccain-at-i_n_159256.html

WASHINGTON — President-elect Barack Obama is calling his former rival John McCain an American hero who set a standard of patriotism and bipartisanship for all to follow. Obama praised McCain at a Monday night dinner in Washington honoring the Republican senator from Arizona whom Obama defeated in the November election.

more...

I agree that Gore was treated completely unfairly, don't get me wrong. But keeping the focus on McCain is fine. The leadership vacuum in the GOP is not a bad thing for democrats, and as long as they keep paying attention to McCain he can keep sucking out that atmosphere :) It would be fine with me if the next election cycle were to roll around with McCain still being the face and voice of the republican party. (Maybe they'd even run him again :rofl:)