Media missteps
By Ari Kaufman (05/21/08)
The mainstream media has been taking quite a few hits lately. Even if the average American has not noticed, the powers-that-be in the big city outlets would have to be sheltered on the highest Colorado mountaintop to deny their sincerity and honesty has been called into question. This has not been a kind few weeks.
It began when TIME Magazine’s editors decided to insult the Greatest Generation by comparing Iwo Jima to the "fight" against "Global Warming" (which surely may not exist). A week later, I was on vacation when my step-father, a huge Bush/McCain critic, showed me a Newsweek feature compared the very pro-Israel, pro-American Rev. Hagee (who has apologized for his anti-Catholic comments) to Rev. Jeremiah Wright, who is not necessarily a supporter of Israel nor America, nor someone who apologizes. Not be outdone, TIME returned fire quickly with a “compelling” cover story discussing Senator McCain's age and health---which will, as they hoped, undoubtedly lead to a few more months of this nonsensical issue being hammered by the agenda-driven media. Newsweek responded last week with a Cover Story that smeared the GOP and the GOP only over the campaign slinging. They deduced that the only way the Republicans have won elections in the past forty years is through attack ads, lies and character defamation. The old adage of “all’s fair in love, war (and politics)” was not mentioned, nor were any stories of smearing by the Democrat Party in elections past. George Soros, moveon.org, crusading professors, Michael Moore, celebrity tours to college campuses, and, of course, the print, film and television media all escaped notation in the article. Thankfully, McCain's people responded.
And most recently, last week, the media went on a crusade against a lame-duck president in the most disingenuous of ways.
The networks speciously cut a 30 second sound byte from a very impressive Bush 60th anniversary speech, which received the high marks of many in Israel, in order to claim the sitting President was attacking the presumptive Democrat presidential nominee…in Israel…on the 60th anniversary of the creation of the Jewish state. The speech never mentioned Obama by name, but the Illinois Senator and his campaign were sensitive and narcissistic enough, like the press that stumps for him, to believe the president was calling out him (and not Jimmy Cater, the American Democrats, Euros, half the world), to believe it was all about him, as he quickly noted in a speech the following day. No consideration was made of the day as a whole, respect for the anniversary, Israel’s miraculous survival for six decades in the midst of hundreds of millions who want them dead, nor the ethos of the speech. It was truly remarkable, and to a Jewish person like me, offensive. Other organizations, like the Republican Jewish Coalition, quickly took note as well.
Then, to start off a new week, first thing Monday morning, Richard Engel, the mid-30s chief foreign correspondent at NBC, who has a history of bias reporting, censored an "exclusive" interview with the president to make the Commander in Chief look silly. The White House, in one of the rare occasions it has become enraged at the media's lack of professionalism, took them to task, and fired back... but only Fox News covered that portion. Surely, that will be proofs of the FNC's bias in the ignorant eyes of many.
Engel also, like most of his ilk, believes the War on Terror, has made the world less safe. And he's told the President that to his face. This may be more courteous that Keith Olbermann telling the president to "Shut the hell Up!," but is still a sign of the petulance of today's arrogant media. Perhaps they learn from their heroes, as the media and youth's candidate of choice rarely calls the president by his title, but rather "George Bush."
Next up: HBO takes charge with a regressive film about an election that was decided (and decided again) nearly eight years ago, while CNN.com uses doom and gloom stories as their leads on a Tuesday afternoon. What purpose does that serve?
With all the horrific press the NBC networks in particular are receiving, suddenly CBS may want to reconsider Katie Couric's status.
Victor Davis Hanson, a military historian, has become so distraught, that he had to pen some "New Rules" we should all understand during the next five months.
His closing is key:
This is the new political landscape that we are in, and those who object to it should expect to face hysterical outrage - in the manner of anyone who suggests that a messiah should at least try to practice what he preaches. And the problem is that those he will face as President - whether an Iranian religious nut, a Hamas terrorist, a Chinese communist, a Castro, Chavez, or North Korean extortionist - will follow no such Obama rules.
Indeed, and that is troubling. The mainstream media, unlike blogs and talk radio, seems now to prefer censoring, instead of interaction and open discourse. They are doing America and Obama no favors in the end. Some Jeffersonians they are.
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