TIME's Mark Halperin: 'Extreme Pro-Obama Media Bias A Disgusting Failure'

Politico:

Media bias was more intense in the 2008 election than in any other national campaign in recent history, Time magazine's Mark Halperin said Friday at the Politico/USC conference on the 2008 election.

"It's the most disgusting failure of people in our business since the Iraq war," Halperin said at a panel of media analysts. "It was extreme bias, extreme pro-Obama coverage."

Read the whole story: Politico

Comments

[darkday]

If the media's constantly complaining about how the media is so pro-Obama, then that makes the media anti-Obama.

[Moka11]

I do hereby officially christen

Mark Halperin

Mark "the Plumber"

equalling his credibility with his brethren Joe...or Sam...or whatever his name is.
This christening in no way is meant to disparage the great knowledge of all talented, professional, knowledgeable, dedicated, genuine "plumbers" who deal with solid waste removal everyday in the most responsible way.

[Kyuzo]

Ah, I see. So we're supposed to believe that Obama would have gotten a pass if:

- He had a pregnant teenage daughter.
- His spouse belonged to a radical secessionist group.
- He was under investigation in his home state for abuse of power.
- He had used campaign funds to go on a wild $150,000 boutique shopping spree.
- He had cheated on his first wife with his present wife.
- He had been directly involved in a massive savings & loan scandal in the 1980's.
- He had aligned himself with preachers who blamed gays for 9/11.

Yeah, I bet.

[nikky]

aren't those people the worst if they can't find something they make it up

[VicksieDo]

Halperin's comments are complete BS. Passes were given about McCain's erratic behavior, for one thing. The media had to report on the MOVEMENT that was the Obama campaign, or they'd have missed reporting reality. Go home, Mr. Whinypants.

[dtd]

Is this the same Mark Halperin who advised the McCain Campaign--in print--to use then Senator Obama's middle name against him? To use Reverend Wright against him? Has any other "journalist" advised a politician to use xenophobia and racism to win an election, at least in the last 50 years? Bias? Has any other candidate since John Kennedy faced a religious litmus test? Has the spouse of a presidential canidate since Hillary Clinton ever faced the scrutiny that Michelle Obama did? For that matter, has any other presidential candidate's spouse had their patriotism questioned? Bias? Let's see...

Todd Palin, a secessionist: Pass

Sarah Palin and Hillary Clinton counseled by religious nuts: Pass

John McCain adulterer: Pass

Hillary Clinton past affiliations with black radicals: Pass

Mark Halperin can go to hell!

[Meggie]

Agree with all you say.
And will add that I hope others will bypass Time mag. It's old news by the time it hits your coffee table anyway.
I dropped it when they started devoting so much space to religious nonsense rather than indepth news. Now it seems that Halperin is in favor of what little content they call news to be slanted rhetoric presented as news. Not worth the trees they kill.

[VicksieDo]

Exactly!

[AZM]

We heard weeks of righteous indignation from McCain and Palin about Ayers, but where was the outrage concerning John McCain's association with G. Gordon Liddy?

[marbiol]

if my memory serves me, liddy went to prison and served his time. i dont think dohrn & ayers ever did. a more legitimate comparison might be with rezko---once [if] he goes to jail and serves his time, will obama still be his neighbor and "acquaintence"???

[Waitaminute]

I hope i don't get banned for this, but i can't think of a better way of saying it. Haperin and the republican party are like selfish lovers. They are satified when they get five climaxes. But when their lover fails to deliver 5 everytime, they want a divorce.

[keepemhonest]

Waitaminute,

.... because they blame their lover for not getting THEM to climax - as opposed to looking in the mirror and realizing they just can't get it up anymore.

[alieninvader]

McCain had nothing positive to say about himself. Was the media supposed to manufacture positive stories about a candidate who has nothing to say but, "I'm a maverick."­?

That being said, there was a whole lot of negative that was never reported about McCain. His military record was treated as sacrosanct. His constant flip flops, even during the course of the campaign, were largely ignored.

[ECB]

Question - who had better sales during the election - Time or Newsweek ?

[peacegurl48]

Perhaps the media, like so much of America, is looking for something positive instead of this relentless negativity and deconstruction.
Where these pundits when Bush/Cheney ravaged our country and stole elections?

[bethel1974]

If the media would report everything fairly without lies and false outrage. Then this story would be an non-issue. The media has become ambulance chasers. In no way did they anticipate a black man to come through the most scrutinized election in history unscathed. There are some black people in this world who has not been to jail or sold drugs. His only "crime" is that he grew up ,went to college,obtained a law degree, married a beautiful woman, had two children and bought a house. Who he is a really bad person to have obtained the same thing that they teach you to do in school, which is to be a productive member of society. He is sooooo BAD.

[Sketchartist]

Halperin has a lengthy and well-earned reputation for being a water-carrier for the right-wing. As any informed person already knew, he has never been more than a GOP propagandist


He is accustomed to living in an unquestioning pro-Bush, pro-Cheney, pro-Rove, corporate media environment. Like a hungover Rip Van Winkle, he now finds himself disoriented in a world in which his malevolent mentors and spineless cronies LOST, while he still wants it to be 2003. As his former employer ABC News likely agrees, he has never had any business whatsoever being in the job he is in.

[MsYellowDog]

I think it should be said,Sketc­hartist,th­at Halperin is hoping it will soon be 1955 again...20­03 is much too advanced for him and his masters. That's what the last 8 years has been mainly about, trying to transform a twenty-first century situation back into when life was grand under Eisenhower.

[Tubalcain]

Mark Halperin forgets that both sides of a story can't be right. One has to be true/fact and right the other false/fiction and wrong. The MSM is no longer an authority on news/information and they are scared. They tried to morally equate Obama's Keating 5 ad to McCain's Ayers ads and sex ed to Kindergartners ads,etc. Obama's ad was based on factual & verified information, McCain's were straight lies & myths. There is no such thing as a "Liberal Media", get over it. Palin was not scrutinized on her shady ties and governance. McCain was not called out on his numerous shady associations either by the "Liberal Media". I wish the MSM would get the memo and go away.

[pithy]

Halperin is wrong on several levels:

1. What was the MSM supposed to report about McCain? That his scurilous commercials were lies? Ooops - true - but negative. That he crashed 5 planes in his exalted military career? Ooops - true but negative. That he consistently voted against veterans issues, while claiming he cared deeply about them? Ooops - true, but negative. That, in the midst of an economic melt-down he acted like Daffy Duck?

That he had NO platform, other than to say "I know how to fix that" and attack his oponent? Ooops - big truth - but negative.

2. On the other hand, let's remember the name of the subject - NEWS - as in NEW STUFF. Obama made news every day with the sze of the crowds, the uber organization of his campaign, the enormous fund-raising, the consistency of message, the trip abroad - ad infinitum.

He was also a totally unlikely story. We all went to see the movie Rocky to watch the underdog win - nobody gave a rat's patootie about the rival who had most of the advantages in his corner.

News is about people and interesting stories - the MSM didn't make Obama compelling, nor did they drive the story. Obama, an excellent team, and the American people, excited and involved, did that on their own.

[alieninvader]

Excellent post!

[tedbear]

Ditto that!!!

Halperin doesn't get it - if he wanted positive media for McCain he could have tuned into Fox or talk radio any day of the week - Mark, you still can tune in, they are still beating that dead horse.

The worst the Repubs could find was printed and talked about all over the place. The problem isn't the press, the problem is the candidates McCain/Palin are not legit. Like you.

[Durango]

Why is Halperin and the other fools who have so contaminated American politics for so long allowed to continue their phony punditry?

In what other profession could you be so consistently wrong and keep your job?

It is like a bus driver who goes into the ditch every time he gets behind the wheel.

But accountability is only for us "little people."

Not the Republican elites.

[jadeba]

Ummm, what about Fox bias? Hello! No one can say they weren't biased in the extreme for McCain. Okay, maybe he was talking about the credible media - and Fox is anything but credible. Fact of the matter is that the Obama "narrative" was far more compelling than the worn out McCain POW narrative. Been there (for a long time) and done that. Look at the amount of press Palin got - and is still getting. The media like narratives, they like novel stories. Otherwise, Palin, who is so ordinary, wouldn't be getting any attention at all. Even Joe the Plumber got a book deal and an agent and he really is a loser.

[arrtimus]

Why is Joe a loser, because he failed to heed The 11th Commandent "thou shalt not question Obama"?

[amistad]

No Joe failed to tell the truth.
-Not registered to vote
-Not a licensed plumber
-Owes back taxes
-Been on public assistance twice
-Did not have the money to buy the business in the first place
Joe should have been honest about who he was when talking to Obama, but no, Joe the r e d n e c k chose to lie just to try to get Obama in some sort of pickle. It did not work.