Big News Orgs Fail To Label McCain Attack Ad False

Talking Points Memo:

I've just done a lap through the coverage by the big news orgs of the ad John McCain put out this weekend attacking Barack Obama for canceling his visit to a U.S. Army base in Germany.

CNN has a piece here, The New York Times has one here, The Washington Post has write-ups here and here, and the Associated Press has one here.

The stories did dutifully note the Obama camp's push-back against the ad. But not a single one of these reports told you that the ad is false.

Read the whole story: Talking Points Memo

Comments

[rosal]

The MSM not doing its job? This is not news anymore. Corporate World orders, and their servant, the MSM obeys. Besides, if they encourage a good fight among candidates, they make sure everybody will be glued to the TV. Good ratings and job security for the talking heads, no wonder they act the way they do.

[entropy2]

When are the Dems going to go on the offensive? Every day is another load of lies and smear from McCain. Does Obama have a strategy here that I'm missing? Between the slime McCain's dishing out and the MSM's kid glove treatment of him, we're ending up with a horserace where there should be none.

[firewmn]

Keith O & Rachell M broke it down 2night, piece by piece.. They covered the obvious troop photo of O and two other fraud sightings but I will have to saw- the streaker in front of Prince Charles was funny..

[firewmn]

oopps- .. "say"- not saw- (but)

[Daisy1111]

HE could have gone with only a miltary escort. He could have gone without the press.

[DontBeFoolish]

Thank God for Keith Oberman, GREAT JOB Mr. Oberman. HP, please make a bigger deal of this on your site and others. This man is playing the American people. Expecially the WHITE AMERICAN PEOPLE. EUROPEANS ARE SMARTER THAN WHITE AMERICA. Get to know this man for who he is America. I am not sure if I'm smelling RACISIM OR FAVORTISIM between the media and McCain, either way it stinks.

[water57]

McCain's campaign complain about Obama media coverage, but he gets free ad advisement with MSNBC and CNN playing this negative ad at nauseam during their news segment. The media is doing their level best to help McCain compete with Obama. Yet, there is little coverage of McCain habitually making gaffes.

[bygollymissmolly]

And they ignore his continued flip flops on major issues. Mc'Cain should be thanking his lucky stars for the lack of media coverage. Because if they really start covering his campaign the way they are covering O'bama, he's going to start screaming about how unfair the press is to him because they publicize his gaffes or his flip flops.

[gladys46]

Republicans assisted by MSM continue to question the intelligence of the American people!! And, why wouldn't they ... both are collusive in packaging & marketing fear and the out right lies which lead to this illegal occupation of a soverign nation!! If most Americans believed that high pressured sale why wouldn't too many believe this big lie!!

That ad is libellous, defaming O's integrity ... it's just clearly false, and the fact that it will affect some people's voting trend, Mc ought to be sued for character assassination since he approved it!

[applebutter]

Tonight on MSNBC's Hardball, Andrea Mitchell came out and said McCain's accusation is a lie. And she was there, after all. There was a big discussion about the ad. Obama never intended for the hospital visit to be political - it wasn't planned to be that way from the start. It was simply scheduled at the end of a political trip. Obama canceled the trip to avoid any appearance of it being political. He was damned if he did - damned if he didn't. If I were a republican, I'd be outraged at the fact that John McCain thinks people are so stupid and lazy that they'll swallow an ad like that without fact checking, or at least, further inquiry.

[firewmn]

I heard her and was very surprised on her comments.. I thought- hmmm- she must be getting some much needed grief from viewers..

[bygollymissmolly]

Unfortunately they are right. The low-information voters out there will believe what they see and not bother to fact-check it. If the MSM doesn't do it for them, then they will conclude that it must be true. We, as a country, are truly fu*ked because our fourth estate is in collusion with a political party. I heard someone on Air America suggest that "we the people" file a class action lawsuit against the MSM, or start with Faux Noise, for misrepresenting the facts and lying to us on a daily basis.

[bola47]

the hatch act prohibits any political activity on government property. since the trip was paid for by the obama campaign, he could not set foot on us govt. property (landstuhl air base is govt. property). the hatch act is something that the republicans ignore with impunity, hence the misleading ads.

[MaryT63]

Good point. What media should have done was to google McBush's trip schedule that he made in April to Iraq with Sens Liberman and Graham. There was a fuel stopover in Germany where McBush visited the troops. But that leg of the trip was part of the senatorial delegation. After his visit to Iraq, etc., the second leg of the trip was paid by McBush campaign where he did not visit any troops.
Also, googling shows that the pentagon has denied McBush access to bases in the states during his campaign trail but McBush has not raised holy hell for them not letting him visit the troops.
The media takes the repubs' talking points as gospel, and everybody has to defend themselves against this slime. Let's stop this, not this time......­..

[abby4ever]

***...not a single one of these reports told you that the ad is false.***

Right, so why does everyone claim that O is getting preferential treatment from the media?

[bygollymissmolly]

Because the Republicons say so.

[nellie]

The headline on your front page says the news organizations "can't" call the ad false, implying the ad is truthful. I simply cannot understand why Huf Post continues to compromise its credibility with misleading headlines.

That said, the news reporting bias on this story is hardly a surprise.

[TrixtersMom]

Donna Brazile called the attack ad "falsely misleading" on CNN today.

[LeftLeanWing]

or wrongly incorrect

[PuppaX]

Headline: "Big News Orgs Can't Call McCain Attack Ad False"

I think you mean that they WON'T, because they certainly CAN.

[Dane1911]

I only watch Oblermann.­...A real journalist­....

[Sixtwo]

What else is new!!! McCain/ the Repugs have a long-standing reputation of lying. So this won't be the last lie we will see/hear. My take: The networks play to their viewers to make news. Nothing was happening negatively to report about Obama's trip. McCain came out with the negative, false ad and that became BIG news. To keep the story going, the networks deliberately did not say that the ads contained false information. I suspect the Obama campaign did not expect his canceled troop visit
would become a live wire inasmuch as they had CLEARLY stated the reasons for the cancellation. I say this because as I watched the overseas coverage nonstop, it was stated that the trip was cancelled because after the Pentagon informed the Obama folks that only certain individuals could accompany him (and these individuals had already left in preparation for the next leg of the trip), Obama decided not to visit the troops because he did not want to make a political issue out of the situation. END OF STORY, until McCain and the media made a big deal out of the matter.

[water57]

The network news station is playing this ad at nauseum, McCain does not paid to have the ad advises because MSNBC and CNN are giving him free advisement.

[AbbieXHoffman]

This is getting hysterical. Just listen to the scary music used when the ad is dissing BO and then the glory music used as soon as the image of McCain comes up. It cracks me up every time.