Media Plays Enabler To McCain Foreign Policy Gaffes

John McCain raised serious doubts about his overall foreign policy faculties yesterday after he remarked that it was "common knowledge" that "that al-Qaeda is going back into Iran and receiving training and are coming back into Iraq from Iran." "That's well known," McCain insisted. Well, apparently not, because mere moments later, Senator Joe Lieberman, who's been an otherwise silent partner on McCain's "This Is Not A Campaign Trip, Really, It Isn't" trip to Iraq, stepped forward to whisper a correction to McCain: "I'm sorry, the Iranians are training extremists, not al-Qaeda."

Unfortunately, this is not an isolated incident with McCain - it's a pattern. ThinkProgress can provide the informed reader with a veritable child's garden of McCain's ignorance this morning. And it should be noted that Lieberman's corrective medicine didn't seem to cure: McCain made the same mistake on Hugh Hewitt's radio show last night, and, as Sam Stein reports, followed that up by repeating the error again today.

Naturally, one wonders if McCain has, as some have suggested, truly crossed the Commander-in-Chief threshold. Well, he may make it yet if the media, like a bridegroom, continues to help carry him over it. This is already beginning to happen. As MediaMatters noted, the AP and CNN both reported on the matter without any mention of McCain's mistake, and the Politico's Jonathan Martin ignored Lieberman's assistance, allowing McCain's camp to assert that "John McCain misspoke and immediately corrected himself." Martin went further in his post on the matter, straining awkwardly to find a way to hit at Barack Obama:

Or because McCain has made his expertise on foreign policy front and center in his campaign and is thus uniquely vulnerable when he commits such gaffes.

Sort of like, say, a candidate who portrays himself as post-racial only to attend a church where...

One has to credit the Washington Post - and their "The Trail" blog in particular, for getting the correct story out there and placing their informed analysis of McCain's mistake in proper context. The AP and CNN should have followed suit. This all goes back to an astute assertion made a couple of weeks ago by our own Rachel Sklar: "...it falls to Obama (and Clinton, who must be kicking herself today) to expose how flawed that judgment is. It also falls to the media, even though they love the old guy (er, the NYT excepted) They've been too quick to anoint him the foreign policy leader here, and too slow to really examine exactly where he's stood and what that's meant. It's the media that has allowed McCain to be the presumptive leader on foreign policy, and the media has framed this race in terms of Democrats having to challenge him on the war."

Comments

[kae]

The MSM have and continue to make what I believe are to be truely historic errors in judgement regarding this election. They are so busy smearing the other guy they haven't noticed that fewer and fewer people are listening and more and more people are talking about their lack of integrity. Journalistic ethics are non-exisistent in the MSM. I often "stumble" thru the news online and lately I have to scroll up to see what news source is attached to the latest headline - some are so rediculous that I assume I've stumbled upon an article from "The Onion". These talking heads are not journalists, they ignore the obvious, do they really think we will not notice when McCain messes up? Why do we need to trot Liebermann along? Isn't McCain experienced enough to speak for himself? I guess this proves the answer to that is NO!

[Durango]

The "mistakes" made by McCain are truly frightening. If, after all this time, he has no understanding of the difference between Sunni and Shia Muslims, the most simple and basic fact of the religion, he has no business being a public official, let alone in the White House.

For far too long stupidity and ideology have substituted for intelligence in political discourse. It is time for that to end.

I have had some respect for John McCain. But that respect has vanished in the wake of his utter ignorance. The world is too big and too complicated a place to have American leaders who are absolutely clueless making decisions.

[brwnizofmine]

I hope that everyone that said that the media was giving Senator Obama a free ride are happy now. I hope you're happy that the media is piling on with the likes of Joe Scarborough, Tucker Carlson and Pat Buchanan. And that is what it is, is piling on, because their certainly is a double standard on the things that are reported on. You people that wished this are going to be sorry when you get another President like GWB or worse. But, you deserve what you get, because you wouldn't know a really good person if they slapped you in the face! Can't you see who controls the media and who is keeping this going? Black people have always been at a disavantage and I can understand why they have some resentment. Tuskeegee did happen, and of course they are skeptical of the government. If it was Senator Obama making gaffees like these about foreign policy, the media would be all over him. They would be telling him he should end his campaign. Actually, Todd, can't remember his first name on MSNBC, said the other day that if Senator Obama could not deliver the race speech, he should just get out of the race. He would never have said that about Hillary, especially if she was winning, the most states, the most delegates, and the popular vote. Give me a break! We are going down the wrong road and we are going to be sorry if we let this one get away from us. I do not believe that we will have another person come along like him for a long time to come. We'll be in that same old rutt, stuck in the same place with race, because we don't talk about it, never trying to come together. GWB was the most divisive president there has been since Reagan. I'm not so sure if it was pitting Blacks against Whites or rich against poor. That's what I believe it is now, if everyone had enough to take care of their families and their households, they would not be so worried about the next person is fairing. But, because everyone is so worried that they may not be able to do the things that they need to do to take care of their families, they get upset if they think someone got something that they should have gotten. Republicans are good at pitting the rich against the poor, because the only advocate for the rich. So go ahead, and keep spewing the hate, and see what you end up with. See what your children will end up with, it will not be good.

[brwnizofmine]

Figures

[Davwbaird]

McCain's blank stare has been noted by a number of health care providers here in Olympia. They were sincerely concerned and did not think his handlers could hide it much longer. Really.

[Chewelahboy]

McCain has more in common with GW than foreign policy (or the lack thereof). I say give him all the media exposure he wants. The more people see these inept attempts to dress up this pretender, the more obvious it becomes that the emperor has no clothes.

[EsKayEs]

If Obama is denied nomination by some funny back room deal I think he should consider running as an independent candidate. I think in a three way race he will stand out as the best choice to the electorate.

[Lbama]

I think an independent run by Obama would be a brilliant move! Go Obama!

[GoldCanyonGal]

OMG! This foto makes McSame look like the 'Red Baron'! How funny! He hasn't looked 'dashing and debonair' for a thousand years!

[julia06]

The American media really needS to grow a set.

[julia06]

This cannot be too suprising re: MSM.
@smca and others: Remember W had lavish buffets for his press leading up to the '00 election? This was well documented in Vanity Fair at the time.

The American media really need to grow a set.

[semorg]

Are we talking about the same media who didn't say anything about the war with Iraq? Don't kid yourself, these guys are in the same bed. Why do you think they are going so hard after Obama?

[Texas4Obama]

Making the same mistake THREE times IS a problem.

If Senator McCain has a memory problem or Alzheimers then it needs to investigated.

Also with all the different faces of Hillary we've seen over the past few weeks maybe each of candidates should be required to past medical and mental tests!

[lovethesinner]

These aren't "gaffes" they're lies. Lies the MSM are complicit in telling. And we are as guilty as they are in expecting the media to be anything other than the propaganda machine it's always been. I like the way Amy Goodman put it:

"If the media was being run by our government as an outlet for state sponsored propaganda, how would it look any different?" (something like that)

If it isn't Perez Hilton, it's "Mission Accomplished. Either way, we're being conditioned to turn our minds off

[iPolitics]

The media is weak and soft on McCain.

[cittykat2]

McCain has been skillfully using the media to his advantage. The media has been invited to two picnics at the McCain's home. This should not be acceptable practice because they will slant their reporting in favor of McCain. This is the reason why you don't see them harping on his mistakes. As professionals they violate their professional ethics. They are slanting the news everyday, I am not interested in their personal opinions or views,I want the facts only. The media bias is so blatanted we as voters deserve better.

[Testtubebaby]

APPARENTLY!