Author Topic: End of the Affair..media finally seing the light?  (Read 1111 times)

headhuntersix

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End of the Affair..media finally seing the light?
« on: July 25, 2008, 09:00:56 AM »
FRom the New Republic.

Around midnight on July 16, New York Times chief political correspondent Adam Nagourney received a terse e-mail from Barack Obama's press office. The campaign was irked by the Times' latest poll and Nagourney and Megan Thee's accompanying front-page piece titled "Poll Finds Obama Isn't Closing Divide on Race," which was running in the morning's paper. Nagourney answered the query, the substance of which he says was minor, and went to bed, thinking the matter resolved.



 
 

But, the next morning, Nagourney awoke to an e-mail from Talking Points Memo writer Greg Sargent asking him to comment on an eight-point rebuttal trashing his piece that the Obama campaign had released to reporters and bloggers like The Atlantic's Marc Ambinder and Politico's Ben Smith. Nagourney had not heard the complaints from the Obama camp and had no idea they were so steamed. "I'm looking at this thing, and I'm like, 'What the hell is this?' " Nagourney recently recalled. "I really flipped out."


Later that afternoon, Nagourney got permission from Times editors to e-mail Sargent a response to the Obama memo. But the episode still grates. "I've never had an experience like this, with this campaign or others," Nagourney tells me. "I thought they crossed the line. If you have a problem with a story I write, call me first. I'm a big boy. I can handle it. But they never called. They attacked me like I'm a political opponent."

L

headhuntersix

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Re: End of the Affair..media finally seing the light?
« Reply #1 on: July 25, 2008, 09:02:01 AM »
So much for "Obama Love." That's the title of John McCain's new web ad, which strings together clips of cable news pundits gushing over Obama like besotted teens. This romance has been a prominent story line of Obama's entire campaign, and clearly elements of it are true: "I felt this thrill going up my leg," Chris Matthews crows in one clip flagged in the ad. But scratch the surface, and you'll find a lot of mixed feelings behind the Obama "love." Reporters are grumbling more and more that the campaign is acting like the Prom Queen. They gripe that it is "arrogant" and "control[ling]," and the campaign's own belief that Obama is poised to make history isn't endearing, either. The press certainly helped Obama get so far so fast; the question is, how far can he get if his campaign alienates them?

 


Last year, when Hillary Clinton campaigned as a front-runner, Obama provided access to the press corps and won over the media. One night, during a campaign stop in Iowa, he met reporters for off-the-record drinks. He cooperated for magazine profiles and appeared on the cover of GQ. And Clinton's relationship with the press wasn't half as easy. "The difference is the Clinton people were hostile for no reason," a reporter who has covered both Democrats tells me.


But, as Obama ascended from underdog to front-runner to presumptive nominee, the flame seems to have dwindled. Reporters who cover Obama these days grouse that Obama's flacks shroud the campaign in secrecy and provide little to no access. "They're more disciplined than the Bush people," a reporter on the Obama trail gripes. "There was this idea of being transparent, but they're not. They're total tightwads with information."


In June, there was something of a revolt after Obama ditched the press corps on his campaign plane for a secret meeting with Clinton at Senator Dianne Feinstein's house in Washington, leaving the reporters trapped on the flight to Chicago. The D.C. bureau chiefs of half a dozen news organizations, including the late Tim Russert, sent an angry letter to Obama aides Robert Gibbs and David Plouffe and threatened not to reimburse the campaign for the cost of the flight. "The decision to mislead reporters is a troubling one," they wrote. "We hope this does not presage a relationship with the Obama campaign that is not based on a mutual respect for the truth." After the incident, the press corps decided that one pool reporter would keep Obama in sight at all times. "It's a body watch," one reporter jokes.


Meanwhile, there have been widespread complaints over the shortage of spots to accompany Obama on his tour of the Middle East and Europe. A few days before the tour departed, Time magazine was told it couldn't send a photographer along, and, on July 22, NBC foreign affairs correspondent Andrea Mitchell complained on-air that the only images the press had received of Obama meeting with the troops was released by the U.S. military. (To be fair, congressional delegations to Iraq are kept secret for security purposes). And there's been widespread grumbling that the campaign revoked New Yorker writer Ryan Lizza's spot on the trip as retribution for the magazine's recent satirical cover. These may or may not be legitimate complaints--the evidence is mixed--but the press is hardly inclined to give the campaign the benefit of the doubt.


Obama's press liaison, Robert Gibbs, has built a particularly large reservoir of ill will. David Mendell, who covered Obama's Senate campaign for the Chicago Tribune and authored the 2007 Obama book From Promise to Power, wrote about Gibbs as "the anti-Obama" and described him as "Obama's hired gun, skillfully trained to shoot at reporters whose coverage was deemed unfair. Mendell tells me, "if [Gibbs] feels you're necessary to achieve a campaign goal, he will give you access and allow you in. But, if he feels you're not going to be of help, he can just ignore you." Mendell has his own specific gripe: Apparently, the Obama team was less than pleased with his biography, on which they cooperated, and Gibbs has since refused to help with the second edition.

L

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Re: End of the Affair..media finally seing the light?
« Reply #2 on: July 25, 2008, 09:04:05 AM »
So much for "Obama Love." That's the title of John McCain's new web ad, which strings together clips of cable news pundits gushing over Obama like besotted teens.

This dignified war vet is using his limited campaign funds to whine about media coverage.

not to talk about energy solution.
not to talk about fixing the economy.
not to talk about the iraq war.

No, he's using his time, money, and mental energies to bitch because the other guy got more tv time than him.  pathetic.

George Whorewell

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Re: End of the Affair..media finally seing the light?
« Reply #3 on: July 25, 2008, 09:36:23 AM »
240, when the deck is stacked against you because the media gives the other candidate a virtual blowjob everytime they cover him, what good is it to focus on the issues when the other guy gets a free pass? 
Obama doesn't stick to the issues either, at least not with any logic or substance. He gives nonsensical contradictory answers and uses vague words and simplistic catch phrases like "hope"  and "yes we can!" to explain away all his questionable positions. Meanwhile the press doesn't ask any tough questions and worship him like fundamentalist muslims worship Allah. 

Obama is essentially a Black John Edwards with a less expensive haircut and more arrogance. McCain should expose him and the medias one sided obsession with him for what it is. That is the only way McCain will get elected.

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Re: End of the Affair..media finally seing the light?
« Reply #4 on: July 25, 2008, 09:38:05 AM »
240, when the deck is stacked against you because the media gives the other candidate a virtual blowjob everytime they cover him, what good is it to focus on the issues when the other guy gets a free pass? 
Obama doesn't stick to the issues either, at least not with any logic or substance. He gives nonsensical contradictory answers and uses vague words and simplistic catch phrases like "hope"  and "yes we can!" to explain away all his questionable positions. Meanwhile the press doesn't ask any tough questions and worship him like fundamentalist muslims worship Allah. 

Obama is essentially a Black John Edwards with a less expensive haircut and more arrogance. McCain should expose him and the medias one sided obsession with him for what it is. That is the only way McCain will get elected.

Mccain expects the media to cover his exposing the media for covering obama too much?

Face it, obama = ratings.

if the repubs were running a Clint Eastwood/ Tom Brady ticket, you can bet we'd have been seeing them tour europe.

George Whorewell

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Re: End of the Affair..media finally seing the light?
« Reply #5 on: July 25, 2008, 09:49:31 AM »
Well duh, thats why hes buying campaign adds to expose the media in the only way he can. The New York Times won't even run an oped piece he wrote which I read in the Post and had absolutely nothing to do with the absurd media coverage- It was all about foreign policy, Obama's most obvious weak point.

The point is McCain doesn't expect the media to cover it, which is why he is spending $ taking out the campaign adds attacking the medias portryal of Obama.

Your last point is exactly whats wrong with this election. Since when does a presidential candidates TV ratings ( which are created in large part because of the media itself) warrant positive coverage without any focus on the issues of his campaign?

Clint Eastwood and Tom Brady aren't running and neither is Bono with Tim Robbins as his VP. The election is supposed to be about issues, not television ratings.

Straw Man

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Re: End of the Affair..media finally seing the light?
« Reply #6 on: July 25, 2008, 10:54:14 AM »
I guess this is an example of the liberal media doing clean up work to help the "Lib" candidate not look like the clueless jackass that he is:


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Re: End of the Affair..media finally seing the light?
« Reply #7 on: July 25, 2008, 11:29:33 AM »
The election is supposed to be about issues, not television ratings.

it's about media companies making money

you watch fox news?  all they do is talk about how bad obama is.
you watch msnbc?  all they do is talk about how great obama is.

$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$

Straw Man

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Re: End of the Affair..media finally seing the light?
« Reply #8 on: July 25, 2008, 01:08:21 PM »
it's about media companies making money

you watch fox news?  all they do is talk about how bad obama is.
you watch msnbc?  all they do is talk about how great obama is.

$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$

I've seen plenty of times where Olberman has criticized Obama though, quite clearly, he is an Obama advocate most of the time when he but that's because most of the time they are in agreement.   

Olberman is a news show but he is also clearly advocates for a progressive agenda.  I do think he is MUCH more honest than his counterparts on the right (Rush, Hannity, O'Reilly, etc.) and has a much better sense of humor too.

headhuntersix

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Re: End of the Affair..media finally seing the light?
« Reply #9 on: July 25, 2008, 02:57:20 PM »
Ur kidding right...obermann is the same as O Reily except he's a leftist. He's not hard news..hard news doesn't have "worst person of the day spots"....
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Re: End of the Affair..media finally seing the light?
« Reply #10 on: July 25, 2008, 03:54:53 PM »
I watched both and I think Olberman is much more even handed than Oreilly. 

I've never seen Olberman bring on a guest and then browbeat the person, turn off their mike etc...

That's standard operating procedure for OReilly.   

I think Olberman is just a much more honest

headhuntersix

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Re: End of the Affair..media finally seing the light?
« Reply #11 on: July 25, 2008, 03:59:47 PM »
He may seem that way to u...and thats fine. But he's like O'reily in format. Plus he doesn't bring in hostile guests and go after people.
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Re: End of the Affair..media finally seing the light?
« Reply #12 on: July 25, 2008, 04:04:34 PM »
agreed that olbermann is like oreilly in many ways.

difference is that Olbermann plays a lot more 'gotcha' by showing video evidence of mccain screwups. 

They both support their candidate because it makes their viewers feel angry, or happy.  I love watching hannity too.  I've never seen a whinier grown man than sean hannity.  He makes the very wimpy holmes seem manly.

Slapper

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Re: End of the Affair..media finally seing the light?
« Reply #13 on: July 26, 2008, 05:09:47 AM »
The New York Times is as good as toilet paper.