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boston university
politics
This Again? Some Still Claiming Media's Obama 'Swoon'
Matt NegrinPosted: Mar 23rd 2009 1:44AM
Filed under: US Elections, Politics, Boston University, MediaKevin Ferris's op-ed today titled "Media's swoon over Obama" even reached the commentary pages of Japan's largest newspaper, The Daily Yomiuri, where I first read it. I wonder how many other people took it seriously.
Ferris, an editorial page editor for the Philadelphia Inquirer, uses a new documentary about campaign coverage to rehash the old argument that during the 2008 race, "the media let us down in nearly every respect."
Fine. Let's hear what you've got to say.
Pointing to a spot in the anti-Obama, anti-media documentary by John Ziegler, Ferris rages over how it is the fault of "the media" that lots of facts about Sarah Palin stuck with voters, while many facts about Barack Obama did not. He notes how voters remembered Palin's expensive wardrobe, Bristol's pregnancy and Tina Fey's impersonation. But "what didn't sink in" about Obama was, according to Ferris/Ziegler, his "background in Chicago politics, his association with domestic terrorist Bill Ayers."
Never mind that referring to Obama's "background in Chicago politics" is too vague to mean much. Do these men really think that the American public didn't hear enough about Bill Ayers? I can still hear Palin's sound bites in my head from every stump speech she gave referring to Obama "palling around with terrorists."
The anti-media, anti-Obama crowd is apparently still seething over its claim that the mainstream media didn't cover Obama's relationship with Ayers. Is that so? What about this front-page New York Times article titled, "Obama and '60s Bomber: A Look Into Crossed Paths," that ran above the fold a month before the election? Don't forget the Times's story the very next day, called, "Palin, on Offensive, Attacks Obama's Ties to '60s Radical."
Maybe these critics should read the Times instead of vaguely bashing it. In the documentary, filmmaker Ziegler also says about Obama, "There was a subconscious decision to treat him differently, lowering the bar for him, because he's black."
Then he lashes out at "the media" for allegedly playing down the Jeremiah Wright fiasco when clips of the pastor surfaced in which he said, "God damn America."
"Rev. Wright is the best example," Ziegler says. "If a white candidate had that kind of a connection to a raving lunatic KKK member -- I mean, please, it's so obvious, it's ridiculous."
So obvious indeed -- almost as obvious as a simple Google search that proves you entirely wrong. Here's a partial list of stories in mainstream publications exploring the link between Obama and Wright:
Los Angeles Times: Poll shows Rev. Jeremiah Wright hurting Barack Obama (March 17, 2008)
New York Times: The Obama-Wright Factor (March 20, 2008)
Washington Post: For Obama, Wright the Latest in a Long Line of Tests (April 28, 2008)
All of this fair and thorough reporting is, according to Ziegler and Ferris, the "death of journalism." You can view parts of the documentary online here. As if to solidify his point that "the media" floated Obama into the White House, he highlights on his website the face of what he sees as truth and fairness: an interview with Sarah Palin, who talks about how important it is to have "fairness in the media."
(Some reminders of how much Palin believes in the truth: She claimed credit for denying the Bridge to Nowhere when she in fact asked for it; she baselessly claimed Obama would "experiment with socialism;" and she claimed a state ethics report cleared her of fault when it in fact found her guilty.)
What's truly newsworthy, though, is a Rasmussen poll that Ferris cites, showing that 51 percent of voters on Election Day "thought reporters tried to help Obama win." How did these reporters do this while they were busy reporting the Wright scandal and the Ayers association, and following up on every other piece of dirt the McCain campaign could bring up? If giving an easy pass to Obama was the media's job, then, to quote Ferris and Ziegler, they really "let us down."
Ferris, an editorial page editor for the Philadelphia Inquirer, uses a new documentary about campaign coverage to rehash the old argument that during the 2008 race, "the media let us down in nearly every respect."
Fine. Let's hear what you've got to say.
Pointing to a spot in the anti-Obama, anti-media documentary by John Ziegler, Ferris rages over how it is the fault of "the media" that lots of facts about Sarah Palin stuck with voters, while many facts about Barack Obama did not. He notes how voters remembered Palin's expensive wardrobe, Bristol's pregnancy and Tina Fey's impersonation. But "what didn't sink in" about Obama was, according to Ferris/Ziegler, his "background in Chicago politics, his association with domestic terrorist Bill Ayers."
Never mind that referring to Obama's "background in Chicago politics" is too vague to mean much. Do these men really think that the American public didn't hear enough about Bill Ayers? I can still hear Palin's sound bites in my head from every stump speech she gave referring to Obama "palling around with terrorists."
The anti-media, anti-Obama crowd is apparently still seething over its claim that the mainstream media didn't cover Obama's relationship with Ayers. Is that so? What about this front-page New York Times article titled, "Obama and '60s Bomber: A Look Into Crossed Paths," that ran above the fold a month before the election? Don't forget the Times's story the very next day, called, "Palin, on Offensive, Attacks Obama's Ties to '60s Radical."
Maybe these critics should read the Times instead of vaguely bashing it. In the documentary, filmmaker Ziegler also says about Obama, "There was a subconscious decision to treat him differently, lowering the bar for him, because he's black."
Then he lashes out at "the media" for allegedly playing down the Jeremiah Wright fiasco when clips of the pastor surfaced in which he said, "God damn America."
"Rev. Wright is the best example," Ziegler says. "If a white candidate had that kind of a connection to a raving lunatic KKK member -- I mean, please, it's so obvious, it's ridiculous."
So obvious indeed -- almost as obvious as a simple Google search that proves you entirely wrong. Here's a partial list of stories in mainstream publications exploring the link between Obama and Wright:
Los Angeles Times: Poll shows Rev. Jeremiah Wright hurting Barack Obama (March 17, 2008)
New York Times: The Obama-Wright Factor (March 20, 2008)
Washington Post: For Obama, Wright the Latest in a Long Line of Tests (April 28, 2008)
All of this fair and thorough reporting is, according to Ziegler and Ferris, the "death of journalism." You can view parts of the documentary online here. As if to solidify his point that "the media" floated Obama into the White House, he highlights on his website the face of what he sees as truth and fairness: an interview with Sarah Palin, who talks about how important it is to have "fairness in the media."
(Some reminders of how much Palin believes in the truth: She claimed credit for denying the Bridge to Nowhere when she in fact asked for it; she baselessly claimed Obama would "experiment with socialism;" and she claimed a state ethics report cleared her of fault when it in fact found her guilty.)
What's truly newsworthy, though, is a Rasmussen poll that Ferris cites, showing that 51 percent of voters on Election Day "thought reporters tried to help Obama win." How did these reporters do this while they were busy reporting the Wright scandal and the Ayers association, and following up on every other piece of dirt the McCain campaign could bring up? If giving an easy pass to Obama was the media's job, then, to quote Ferris and Ziegler, they really "let us down."
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Le WIlhelm
3:01AM 3:01AM Mar 23rd 2009
they do and you do. They have no choice, they elected him through their biased and unfair coverage. He was treated different. And that very fact makes the media racist.
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Matt Negrindouchebag
3:13AM 3:13AM Mar 23rd 2009
Wow MATT NEGRIN is really and truly some sort of Douchebag!! Everything he says is LIES.I am not like him a hard core Liberal or a hard core Conservative. I am a moderate Independent like most Americans can probably Identify with.Yes there were a few new sources that covered some of Obama's faults here and there buttttt and it's a big butt like Michelle has.....Overwhelmingly the MEDIA was BIASED like everything he says!!One paper comments on the dirty deeds or the racism of Obama and 1000 papers give him a pass and prop him up and saying it is all lies and inuendo.Balanced? Fair ? PLEASEEEE ..this matt is part of the heiarchy trying to keep the masses in check.Wonder how much he is getting from the Stimulus bill(PAYOFF BILL) for Obama and friends handiwork.
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pdg45acp
6:10PM 6:10PM Mar 23rd 2009
LOL!!!
Someone needs to tell Negrin the election is over.
Was anyone buying his kind of BS before the election?
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vic
8:16AM 8:16AM Mar 23rd 2009
Thanks Matt, I also read/saw many media pieces on Obama and his supposed associations. On the other hand, I really didn't see many MSM pieces on McCain and the Keating 5. I also saw many articles about Michelle Obama and her job history but saw only 1 or 2 on Cindy McCain and her drug addiction which lead to her stealing drugs from charitable groups. Don't hear anyone on the right whining about that. As for Palin, she is irrelevant to the Washington political scene and struggling for relevance in her state.
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mayabelle1107
8:49AM 8:49AM Mar 23rd 2009
Let's see...obama just spent more tax payer dollars than every President before him, COMBINED. Yet every day the lead story is another Palin saga. What happened to the impeached Governor that tried to sell obama's senate seat? Didn't obama help run his Blagojevich's gubernatorial campaign? What happened to Burris? Caught on tape offering money for an elected post. Did Geitner and obama convince Dodd to put the hidden AIG bonus into his pork spending bill?
The reality is you are all embarassed at how poorly you did your vetting of our sitting president and his nefarious connections, that you have no choice but continue your love affair charade.
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Mattsa Douche
9:13AM 9:13AM Mar 23rd 2009
Wow talk about swooning, you do enough swooning for everyone, I can read 1 paragraph of any article you have ever writtenand know exactly what you will say. You really need to be mor UNBIASED in your thinking if you want to be a serious journalist. You literally suck.
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Willet
11:19AM 11:19AM Mar 23rd 2009
Ah grasshopper, still clinging to the old beliefs. But, one of these days you will have to admit, that for some reason Americans are finding themselves electing candidates to the United States Congress and the White House that are unfit to lead our country.
Who is to blame? As a start, both political parties, muck rakers in media and special interest groups.
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Magic 8
12:00PM 12:00PM Mar 23rd 2009
Just curious Matt-when Barry takes you out for a walk, does he dress you in little boots and a jacket, or do you just ride in his purse?
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Karen
12:10PM 12:10PM Mar 23rd 2009
Part of the problem, from just looking at the comments to this article, is this: People are such idiots that they only seek one place to get all their news. And whether that be Fox News or HuffPo or CNN or wherever, they're still wrong to do it. It's up to the individual to read different accounts from different sources to form an opinion. I've seen lots of negative coverage about Obama, and I saw lots of positive coverage about McCain. Of course, when Republicans lose, their favorite game is to blame the media for affecting everyone's opinion. Did Rush tell you guys to think that way?
Second off: The internet, while wonderful in many respects, is really killing journalism--because any moron can claim to be a journalist and write whatever they want. This guy is a blogger. Bloggers are biased people who write about their opinions and slants. This isn't real journalism. But a lot of people have forgotten about that.
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ANNEE
12:46PM 12:46PM Mar 23rd 2009
The "media" also embraced Hitler. When he was first getting started in Germany he was hailed as "just what Germany needs". He was a man of the people and his "volkeswagon" - people's car - was his symbol.
He put the German people "back to work" on highway projects, "the autobahn". He was a charismatic speaker.
This is not to compare Obama to Hitler, but to point out that the media is often wrong when they jump on political bandwagons, a place on which a fair and balanced media has no place.
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Tom
3:33PM 3:33PM Mar 23rd 2009
I'm sorry, but you just compared Obama to Hitler.
I mean, not to compare you to a bitch, but that's something a bitch would do.
See what I did there?
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jj13p
6:17PM 6:17PM Mar 23rd 2009
Obama is extremely like Hitler!
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iynaroc02
10:31AM 10:31AM Mar 24th 2009
You should have started a movement to change the constitution and re-elect George Bush to a third term. Or better yet get John McCain elected since the likes of you are so used to mediocre presidents. You rather have John Mccain that graduated at the bottom 3 of his college class, crashed 5 planes and captured as POW be your president. Or better yet have Sara Palin that it took 7 years and 6 colleges to get just a bachelors degree as the president. Now you have a smart, intelligent and pragmatic president, and you don't know how to handle it. You did not say Obama was hitler, but using both names to compare "process" or whatever stupid reason your small brain allows you, makes a connection in people's mind, and that's human mind works.
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falling
3:07PM 3:07PM Mar 24th 2009
Tom, the problem with your snide answer is that there ARE many similarities between Obama and Hitler...while I doubt very much that Annee is a female dog...the whole typing on a computer thing pretty much proves she isn't!
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Tori
6:35PM 6:35PM Mar 23rd 2009
Wow! A journalist claiming that the media wasn't biased with regards to Obama. Shocking! Can't believe it. Enjoy being full of fantastic crap.
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Ed
10:29PM 10:29PM Mar 23rd 2009
Matt, it was really nice of you to pull your nose out of Obama's *ss long enough to write this ridiculous column. Ferris said the truth.
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ANNEE
10:30PM 10:30PM Mar 23rd 2009
Tom
3:33PM 3:33PM Mar 23rd 2009
I'm sorry, but you just compared Obama to Hitler.
I mean, not to compare you to a bitch, but that's something a bitch would do. See what I did there?
###################
Not to insult rocks, Tom, but you are dumber than a box of them if you don't understand the difference between comparing the "process" of gaining power with what is done with that power. I stand by it as a legitimate comparison and if you had a brain you would get it.
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KJ
6:40AM 6:40AM Mar 24th 2009
MATT NEGRIN IS A COMPLETE MORON, GET A HAIR ON YOUR FACE AND RID OF THE PIMPLES, YOU FOCKING IDIOT AND THEN COME BACK AND MINDLESSLY DEBATE THE OBVIOUS BIAS. YOUR HEAD IS UP YOUR HOMO @$$
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KJ
6:45AM 6:45AM Mar 24th 2009
yea well they NEVER EVER answered the queation of his muslim ties..hell, he has a muslim name, grew up muslim, lived in a muslim country had a muslim dad and youre a complete focking idiot if you dont see the ties of a MILITANT BLACK CHURCH and the likes of the HATRED spewed as it compares to the islam recruiting of these SAME parishoners.
You and negrin are fockup little kid idiots. FOCK YOU MORON
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KJ
6:45AM 6:45AM Mar 24th 2009
AND THAT PIECE OF SH..IT OBAMA PLAYED THE RACE CARD. HELL, THE MEDIA NEVER COVERED HOW HE SUED BANKS FOR RACISM. THE CALLED HIM A COMMUNITY ORGANIZER ! ! LMAO ! ! YOU ARE A FOCKUP IF YOU VOTED FOR THIS RACIST MORON
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