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"Media Matters"; by Jamison Foser

A test for the media On MSNBC on Thursday, Time's Jay Carney offered an assessment of the McCain campaign's most recent assault on the media: "Clearly, the campaign has decided that one way to win is to attack the media. Now, that could work. It does not have a great history of working. 'Annoy the Media: Re-Elect George Bush,' 1992 -- Bush got, I think, 39 percent of the vote or 37 percent of the vote." Carney didn't explicitly say it, but he seems to be under the impression that the point of the McCain campaign's attacks on the media is to win support from voters who dislike the media. And he seems to think the Republicans only occasionally wage a war on his profession. In fact, it is a constant war, the point of which is not to merely win a few votes from people who dislike the media. The point is to make voters distrust the media, to make them believe the media are out to get conservatives and thus cause them to discount news reports that are unfavorable to conservatives, and to cow the media themselves into running fewer such reports. (It serves another purpose, too: It helps a nominee whose heiress wife shows up at the convention in an outfit estimated to cost $300,000 pretend to be a man of the people raging against the "elites." But that's a story better told elsewhere.) And it does indeed have a great history of working. No, it has a spectacularly successful history of working -- of helping conservatives win both short-term and long-term victories. Don't take my word for it: Longtime Washington Post reporter Tom Edsall, now of The Huffington Post, has explained: The conservative movement has been very effective attacking the media (broadcast and print) for its liberal biases. The refusal of the media to disclose and discuss the ideological leanings of reporters and editors, and the broader claim of objectivity, has made the press overly anxious, and inclined to lean over backwards not to offend critics from the right. In many respects, the campaign against the media has been more than a victory: it has turned the press into an unwilling, and often unknowing, ally of the right. Take one example of right-wing media bashing contributing to short-term electoral success: Under fire from the White House and conservative activists, CBS News spiked a report questioning the Bush administration's case for the Iraq war that was supposed to air shortly before the 2004 election. During that year's presidential debates, Bush told Americans, "I'm not so sure it's credible to quote leading news organizations" -- a direct assault on the media from the president of the United States in the biggest forum he had. But that was only a small drop in the steady stream of media criticism that came from Bush and his allies during the 2004 election. If Jay Carney is going to point to election results to assess the success of the GOP's assault on the media, he can't simply cherry-pick the elections the Republicans lost; they've been doing this every election cycle for 40 years. But the conservatives' attacks on the media aren't simply about the next election. They recognize that each such criticism makes voters and the media more likely to believe the next -- so even if the 2004 attacks hadn't worked, they still would have been successful. And there would be nothing wrong with any of that -- if the Republicans' complaints had significant merit. But they frequently do not -- and they often don't even pretend that they do. A few weeks ago, for example, there was a frenzy of conservative whining that Barack Obama had gotten more media coverage than John McCain. Now, the amount of coverage each candidate has gotten, by itself, tells us virtually nothing. What was the content of the coverage? Was it positive? Negative? True? False? Fair? Balanced? The conservative complainers made no attempt to assess this -- they just yelled that Obama was getting more coverage. Well, O.J. Simpson got considerably more coverage than Mother Teresa in 1994 -- anyone want to argue he got more favorable coverage? Anyone want to argue that, by covering Simpson too much, the media were demonstrating that they were in the tank for him? Still, despite glaring flaws with the Republicans' criticism, the media took them seriously, and many journalists adopted the complaints as their own. The past week provides a useful case study of how the Republicans' assault on the media works. Last Friday, John McCain announced that he had chosen Sarah Palin to be his running mate. The media had a few questions -- basically, who is she, and is she ready to be president? So the McCain campaign threw a tantrum, insisting the media were being unfair. As usual, the complaints were short on details and merit -- but the media still took the complaints seriously, treating them as one of the most important topics of the past few week. Perhaps the best example of how phony the GOP's complaints were: the McCain campaign's cancellation of an appearance by McCain on Larry King Live because, they said, CNN anchor Campbell Brown had behaved improperly in interviewing campaign spokesperson Tucker Bounds the night before. They didn't really say what Brown had done wrong -- probably because all she had done was ask simple questions that Bounds couldn't answer. After Bounds said that as governor of Alaska, Palin leads the state's National Guard, Brown asked him for an example of a decision she had made in that capacity. He didn't answer. So she asked him again. That isn't inappropriate; that's exactly what she should have done -- that's journalism. And that drove the McCain campaign crazy. So, did all the complaints work? Consider this: Wednesday night, Sarah Palin falsely claimed she had told Congress she did not want funding for the "bridge to nowhere." She didn't; that was a lie. Congress had said a year before Palin became governor that Alaska need not spend the federal funds on the bridge. And Palin had initially supported the bridge, not opposed it. And once she became governor, Palin kept the money. Palin's false claims Wednesday night were not new: She had said the same thing in previous campaign appearances since McCain picked her -- and several media outlets, including The New York Times, The Washington Post, and the Los Angeles Times had debunked the boast. But when Palin told the lie during her convention speech -- after days of McCain complaints that the media had been too hard on Palin -- those newspapers ignored the lie. That wasn't the only false claim in Palin's speech that went un-debunked by the media. She falsely attacked Barack Obama's legislative record -- and media uncritically quoted the false claims. She lied about Obama's tax plans -- she said he "wants to raise" them, even though John McCain's own economic adviser has admitted that is false -- and, again, the media repeated her claim without debunking it. Instead, much of the media gushed over her speech. If you watched MSNBC yesterday, you would have seen reporter after reporter talk about the McCain complaints that the media were too hard on Palin. And you would have seen reporter after reporter lavish praise on Palin's speech. But you wouldn't have seen them say much about the actual content of Palin's speech -- certainly not about whether she told the truth in it. At one point, Andrea Mitchell declared that "what came through" in Palin's address was "the authenticity." Nonsense. "Authenticity" doesn't consist of doing a good job of delivering a speech -- not if the speech is riddled with falsehoods. But most of the media didn't tell you about the falsehoods, they just fell all over themselves praising the speech -- even praising the "authenticity" of someone who stood before the nation and repeated lies she had already been caught telling. So, did the McCain attacks on the media work? They certainly didn't hurt. And this isn't the first time a McCain assault on the media has appeared to pay off. He and his campaign have spent much of the year attacking the press. And it seems to have worked: McCain still hasn't faced the media scrutiny reporters kept insisting would come eventually. The media have told us a lot about Barack Obama and Tony Rezko, for example -- but kept key details about John McCain's relationship with Charles Keating a secret. Did you know that Cindy McCain was business partners with Keating around the time John McCain was meeting with regulators on Keating's behalf? Probably not: The Washington Post hasn't told readers that fact during this campaign; The New York Times has made only brief mention of it. ABC, CBS, NBC -- nothing. Or how about the fact that John and Cindy McCain would save nearly $400,000 a year under John McCain's tax plan -- a tax plan that includes the extension of Bush tax cuts McCain once bashed as unfairly skewed towards the wealthy? Have you seen any media mention to that lately? It wasn't long ago that news organizations thought John Edwards' wealth was important to keep in mind in assessing his policy proposals -- but that apparently doesn't apply to John McCain. The McCain campaign's war against the media shouldn't be surprising; this is what conservatives do. The only real question is what reporters are going to do about it. Are they going to fall for the absurd argument that John McCain -- arguably the national politician who has received the most favorable media coverage over the past decade, if not longer -- is being unfairly treated by reporters who still haven't given him any serious scrutiny? Are they going to cower in the face of right-wing bullying as they have so many times in the past? It's hard to imagine that they won't. But there have been some encouraging signs this week. Time's Carney seems legitimately irritated that the Republican vice-presidential nominee refuses to face reporters. And colleague Joe Klein -- who has, in the past, been awfully kind to McCain -- urged fellow reporters not to back down in the face of the barrage of criticism from the right: There is a tendency in the media to kick ourselves, cringe and withdraw, when we are criticized. But I hope my colleagues stand strong in this case: it is important for the public to know that Palin raised taxes as governor, supported the Bridge to Nowhere before she opposed it, pursued pork-barrel projects as mayor, tried to ban books at the local library and thinks the war in Iraq is "a task from God." The attempts by the McCain campaign to bully us into not reporting such things are not only stupidly aggressive, but unprofessional in the extreme. The next two months will constitute a test for reporters: If they fall for the idea that they're treating unfairly a candidate who has long referred to them as his "base," what won't they fall for? If they won't stand up to these attacks, what will they stand up to?

In WND column, Corsi co-author Craig R. Smith called Obama "our first hip-hop president"

In his August 25 WorldNetDaily column, Craig R. Smith, who co-wrote Black Gold Stranglehold: The Myth of Scarcity and the Politics of Oil (WND Books, October 2005) with Obama Nation author and WND staff writer Jerome Corsi, asserted that "the real reason" Sen. Barack Obama's election would be "a moment of historical significance unlike any other" is because Obama "will be our first hip-hop president." Smith continued: "I can only imagine how the world will embrace the leader of the free world when he introduces other foreign leaders with, 'give it up for my man Vladimir.' Giving 'props' for joining us in a treaty. Or the first lady Michelle talking about 'my man' the 'daddy of my babies' when referring to the president. ... The use of ghetto slang during the primaries and even today may be a clear indication just how the Obamas intend to 'roll' if given the privileged seat in the Oval Office." Smith also wrote: "I can see it now. Air Force One decked out with '22s' and spinners. Maybe even a set of hydraulics. Watching the hip-hop president in the Oval Office with his baseball cap on backward coping a gansta lean in the big chair. Should be really pimp, don't you think?" Smith's column was highlighted by Atlantic Media blogger Andrew Sullivan on August 27. From Smith's column, headlined "The hip-hop president": If Barack Obama is to become our 44th president, it will be heralded as a moment of historic significance unlike any other. However, I think many are missing the real reason why. It's because Barack Obama will be our first hip-hop president. I can only imagine how the world will embrace the leader of the free world when he introduces other foreign leaders with, "give it up for my man Vladimir." Giving "props" for joining us in a treaty. Or the first lady Michelle talking about "my man" the "daddy of my babies" when referring to the president. That should go over well everywhere from 10 Downing Street right on down to the streets of the Middle East. The use of ghetto slang during the primaries and even today may be a clear indication just how the Obamas intend to "roll" if given the privileged seat in the Oval Office. Of course, having no sense of decorum and awe is nothing new to Democrats. Bill Clinton did a masterful job of disgracing the office, and I expect no less from Obama if given the chance. But he will be so fly! I can see it now. Air Force One decked out with "22s" and spinners. Maybe even a set of hydraulics. Watching the hip-hop president in the Oval Office with his baseball cap on backward coping a gansta lean in the big chair. Should be really pimp, don't you think? Cool man, real cool. Instead of giving away presidential cuff links to guests, as is the custom, he will offer "bling bling." I imagine a whole group of special advisers to the president sitting around the Oval Office discussing policy. Kanye West, 50 Cent and maybe even Eminem (to keep the diversity thing going), all sharing their life experiences with the prez to assist him in understanding his "peeps." No more press conferences or State of the Union addresses will be necessary. He will text message any comments he has to his public and his pals in the media. When it comes time for the State of the Union, he can just post it on his blog and cc the Daily Kos and the Huffington Post. The first interactive, full-bandwidth prez. How 21st century. After a few months on the job, he can refer to his cabinet members as his "bitches." Hey don't get angry at me. Take a listen to any hip-hop song, and that is the type of endearing language you will hear. A group of playas that have no respect for the country. The same country that affords them a lifestyle most people only dream of, and all they can do is endlessly complain about it. Barack is very good at putting America down. Just like his hipster homeboys. Remember that hip-hop is a culture, not a color. It's a mind set and a way of life -- one that is chosen not inherited. It has been slowly infiltrating every class and race in America for years. A culture that has led people to believe they deserve more. That America somehow owes them something. And because they think they have been ripped off in some fashion, they are angry.

Dem Convention Techiest Event in Party's History

: Photo: Steve Peterson/Wired.comThe four-day 2008 Democratic National Convention in Denver this week is not just a political event -- it's a celebration of social media, high-definition video and really kick-ass internet connectivity. "This is America's convention, and we're using new technology this time, like text messaging and Google and YouTube, to really break down these walls to make this [convention] more open and interactive," says Brook Colangelo, the DNCC's director of technology. This year's convention sees multiple firsts in technological innovations for the quadrennial political party gathering. For starters, the Democratic National Convention Committee is providing bloggers (and floor delegates) with "video-upload booths" where they can upload their footage to YouTube or any other online-video platform. The DNC is using text messaging and streaming video to keep delegates (and those following along at home) up to date. Separately, an alliance of groups, including progressive group blog the DailyKos, ProgressNow and the Alliance for Sustainable Colorado, are hosting and sponsoring an 8,000-square-foot "bloggers tent," where attending bloggers, vloggers and podcasters will have a place to work with a high-bandwidth internet connection. Here's a look at some of the tech inside the Pepsi Convention Center, where the event is taking place. High-Tech Podium The convention committee hired top talent to design its futuristic-looking stage: Designer Bruce Rodgers came up with the idea for the Democrats' flashy podium. Rodgers' other clients include Madonna, Mötley Crüe, the Dave Matthews Band and the National Football League. The DNC convention setup features 8,000 square feet of video-projection surfaces, and that includes three 103-inch Panasonic LCD HD screens, the largest of their kind. The screens will project daily themes of the convention and other relevant pictures as events unfold. The DNCC says that more than 50 technicians and 70 local stagehands have worked more than 25,000 hours to create the 70-foot-wide and 60-feet-high stage and podium. : Craigslist Founder Craig Newmark is blogging and vlogging about the Democratic National Convention for his personal blog cnewmark.com, Reuters and The Huffington Post. He's one of more than 120 bloggers who have been credentialed to "cover" the convention. On Monday, Newmark worked in The Big Tent, an 8,000-square-foot space for bloggers. His gear: A Lenovo ThinkPad x300, an iPhone 3G, a Flip Video, a Nokia n95, a Nikon P80 and a pedometer. He plans on streaming and shooting video during the convention, as well as writing, and he has plans to attend tech round tables taking place at the convention, as well as several parties with celebrities. "I've never been to a convention, and I've never done anything political before," he says. Newmark is a surrogate for Obama and speaks about technology issues. : Photo: Steve Peterson/Wired.comCNN chief national correspondent John King, at the "Mini Magic Wall." The touchscreen is a smaller version of the "Magic Wall" that CNN has used in election coverage. It is produced by Perceptive Pixel, a company founded by multitouch pioneer Jeff Han. : Photo: Steve Peterson/Wired.comJosh Braun, CNN Producer of New Media, works on a map of the convention floor, which will be geo-referenced to real-time voting data. His computer is connected to the nearby giant touchscreen used by John King. : Photo: Steve Peterson/Wired.comCNN uses a "Polecam" system on one corner of the floor for correspondent Candy Crowley. The monitor and controller at the opposite end of the pole holding the camera are shown here. : Photo: Steve Peterson/Wired.comA state-delegation voting kiosk with internet connectivity for bloggers is shown here. There are a total of 56 of these kiosks in the convention hall. The foreground computer is used to tally delegate votes. The monitor at right is for those who are sight- or hearing-impaired. A phone is on each side of the voting computer: one connected to Obama for America and one to the DNC secretary, both used to coordinate issues on the floor. The connection is hardwired so as not to compete with RF devices (such as video cameras) from the news media. The yellow cable gives internet access to bloggers. : Photo: Steve Peterson/Wired.comIn background is the DNC network hardware and in foreground is an OC-192 circuit, providing 10 Gbps of bandwidth -- enough, convention organizers say, to connect 220,000 homes to the internet. : Photo: Steve Peterson/Wired.comWith 56 blogging kiosks, a massive OC-192 internet connection, blogger-friendly amenities, streaming video and 8,000 square feet for bloggers nearby, the Pepsi Center is about to host the most-blogged event ever. : Photo: Steve Peterson/Wired.comDNC Committee technology director Brook Colangelo holds a cable at a state-delegation voting kiosk. The connection is hardwired so as not to compete with RF devices (such as video cameras) from the news media -- plus, it will provide a more reliable connection than WiFi could in an environment where so many people want internet access. : Photo: Steve Peterson/Wired.comJoe Silber and Lysandra Nelson from San Francisco mug at the podium for a photo op. Behind them are three Panasonic 103-inch HDTV displays; 8,000 square feet of video projection area is behind that.

CNN's five new "top political reporters and commentators" include reported McCain adviser, former RNC official, CBN's Brody, and Wash. Post 's Milbank

In an August 13 press release -- posted on Media Matters for America Senior Fellow Duncan Black's blog -- CNN announced: "Brody, Castellanos, Milbank, Rosen, Wall Span Spectrum of U.S. Politics for CNN Analysis, Commentary ... CNN has added five more top political reporters and commentators to its deep bench of political contributors and analysts. Each of these respected observers of politics will provide analysis and commentary as CNN continues its political coverage." CNN's new "top political reporters and commentators" that "[s]pan" the "[s]pectrum" include reported Sen. John McCain adviser Alex Castellanos, former Republican National Committee official Tara Walls, Christian Broadcasting Network senior correspondent David Brody -- who once described a male blogger as Fred Thompson's "angry girlfriend" -- and Washington Post reporter Dana Milbank, who was recently chastised by the Washington Post ombudsman over his use of an anonymously sourced and unconfirmed quote. Republican strategist Alex Castellanos. As Media Matters documented, in a March 25 post on the washingtonpost.com blog The Fix, staff writer Chris Cillizza reported that Castellanos -- creator of the racially charged "Hands" advertisement -- is a member of the "McCain Ad Council," a "group of advisers ... [that] will serve as outside thinkers and strategists to the [McCain] media effort." The New York Times reported on August 10 that Castellanos is a "member of Mr. McCain's panel of outside advertising consultants." Some of Castellanos' recent CNN remarks include his saying of a characterization of Sen. Hillary Clinton as a "white bitch," "[S]ome women, by the way, are named that and it's accurate" (for which he apologized); suggesting that Clinton would poison Sen. Barack Obama; and falsely suggesting a link between 9-11 and Iraq. Christian Broadcasting Network senior national correspondent David Brody. As Media Matters documented, in an August 21, 2007, post on his CBNnews.com blog -- titled "Fred, You're Such a Tease!" -- Brody characterized male blogger Lane Hudson as former Sen. Fred Thompson's "angry girlfriend." Hudson had filed a complaint against Thompson (R-TN) with the Federal Election Commission for Thompson's conduct in forming an exploratory committee on his presidential bid. After asserting that Thompson was handling speculation about his presidential campaign "like the cool, handsome jock in high school who teased all the girls who wanted to go out with him," Brody wrote: "Well, now Fred Thompson has an angry girlfriend. His name (don't go there) is Lane Hudson." Washington Post reporter Dana Milbank. As Media Matters documented, in a July 30 column discussing a meeting Sen. Barack Obama had with members of the House of Representatives, Milbank wrote: "Inside, according to a witness, he told the House members, 'This is the moment ... that the world is waiting for,' adding: 'I have become a symbol of the possibility of America returning to our best traditions.' As he marches toward Inauguration Day (Election Day is but a milestone on that path), Obama's biggest challenger may not be Republican John McCain but rather his own hubris." While Milbank gave no indication that he contacted the Obama campaign or anyone at the event to confirm the accuracy of the quote, Post colleague Jonathan Weisman, who also reported the quote and also cited "a witness," reportedly did hear from people at the event: House leadership aides who disputed interpretations -- like Weisman and Milbank's -- of the comment as self-aggrandizing. Weisman wrote in an update: [O]ne leadership aide said the full quote put it into a different context. According to that aide, Obama said, "It has become increasingly clear in my travel, the campaign -- that the crowds, the enthusiasm, 200,000 people in Berlin, is not about me at all. It's about America. I have just become a symbol." In a July 31 online chat, Milbank referred to criticism he had received for his July 30 column as "whines." The Washington Post itself was not quite as dismissive, later publishing a correction to one falsehood in Milbank's column. Further, responding to reader complaints about Milbank's use of a disputed and "anonymous secondhand quotation from Sen. Barack Obama," Post ombudsman Deborah Howell chastised Milbank for citing the source anonymously and for imputing a particular interpretation to a quote he did not witness. Howell wrote in her August 10 column: "Anonymous quotes should be used sparingly; this one wasn't worth it. If you weren't there, be careful about judging the context." Howell also found that "[n]either Weisman nor Milbank called the source" to confirm their interpretation of the quote. Media Matters also documented that on the January 24, 2007, broadcast of National Public Radio's Morning Edition, Milbank asserted of Sen. Hillary Clinton at President Bush's State of the Union address: "Hillary Clinton was situated immediately behind Barack Obama, making it easier for her to actually place the knife into his back, if that's what she was trying to do." Milbank also distorted a quote from Clinton -- "[P]eople who have known me, who can talk about what I do when the lights are off" -- to claim that her remark "was very nearly a case of Too Much Information." But Milbank left off the rest of Clinton's sentence, which makes clear that she was not insinuating what Milbank suggested. Milbank also wrote in December 2007 that Obama's "signature legislation as a state senator, the Health Care Justice Act, merely set up a panel to craft a plan," not, as Obama claimed, "expanded health care in Illinois by bringing Democrats and Republicans together, by taking on the insurance industry." In fact, Obama sponsored a bill that expanded health insurance programs for low-income families in Illinois. Washington Times deputy editorial page editor and columnist Tara Wall. As CNN's release notes, Wall previously served as the "director of outreach communications for the Republican National Committee." A February 2005 RNC press release stated: "Tara Wall will serve as Director of Outreach Communications, ensuring that specialty and mainstream press are informed of the RNC's outreach efforts, President Bush's record of achievement and the Republican agenda as it relates to different constituencies across the ethnic, religious and ideological spectrums." CNN also added Democratic strategist Hilary Rosen, also the political director and Washington editor at large for The Huffington Post. From CNN's press release: CNN Recruits Key Political Experts for Campaign Coverage Brody, Castellanos, Milbank, Rosen, Wall Span Spectrum of U.S. Politics for CNN Analysis, Commentary Building upon its winning coverage of the U.S. presidential campaign and other political contests, CNN has added five more top political reporters and commentators to its deep bench of political contributors and analysts. Each of these respected observers of politics will provide analysis and commentary as CNN continues its political coverage. The contributors, who will appear across CNN's numerous platforms in the coming days, include: David Brody, senior national correspondent for the Christian Broadcasting Network. A veteran journalist of more than 20 years, Brody writes the political blog, "The Brody File." Alex Castellanos, a Republican strategist and former campaign consultant for Mitt Romney's presidential campaign. Castellanos is a partner in National Media Inc., a political and corporate consulting firm. Dana Milbank, a Washington Post staff writer and author of the thrice-weekly "Washington Sketch" column. A veteran of political coverage, he has also worked for The New Republic and The Wall Street Journal, and his latest book is Homo Politicus: The Strange and Scary Tribes That Run Our Government. Hilary Rosen, a Democratic strategist and currently the political director and Washington editor-at-large for HuffingtonPost.com. In a previous role, she was chairman and CEO of the Recording Industry Association of America. Tara Wall, deputy editorial page editor and columnist for The Washington Times. Previously, she served as director of the office of public affairs at the Administration for Children and Families, a division of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, and as director of outreach communications for the Republican National Committee.