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

[socialmistfit]

I think you are full of liberal koolaid if you are denying media bias for Obama. After 40 years of political crumbs, liberals finally found a gifted candidate to head the table. But the press and media failed miserably to report each candidate in a fair and balanced way. They treated Obama as the American Idol of politics. This created the excitement that helped Obama’s campaign rake in unprecedented campaign contributions. With all the media and press against him and fewer dollars to compete with, McCain had to resort to negative. However, much of what was reported as “negative” were legitimate ads questioning Obama’s credentials and associations.

Even with all this, Obama likely only won because of reactionary voters angry or anxious about the economy. What will be interesting is the public response to this history of severe press and media bias if government’s performance in the Obama era does not meet expectations. I think the reactionaries may turn on those individuals and institutions involved in promoting Obama. In that case Liberals may be back to crumbs for another 40 years.

[Davwbaird]

socialmistfit

out of touch, people forgetting about? i think thry tip the scale toward palin and what"s name.

[Durango]

And the past 8 years of lies, deceit, gutting of Constitutional liberties, a total meltdown of the economy due to half baked Republican ideology, the lack of anything but a negative message, a fool for a President and a candidate who pandered to the worst elements of the Republican Party.

All had nothing to do with it.

It was all a liberal media conspiracy of bas towards Obama.

It must be nice living in a fact free environment of you own devising.

[Ugonna]

Lipstick on a pig was played ad nauseum until Barack said "enought" and the economic crisis occurred. Barack was hung in effigy about 4 or 5 times in the last couple of weeks in the election, barely a peep from the MSM. McCain was NEVER really taken to task about his nastier Obama accusations, like the sex ed ad, or really the "pals around with terrorist stuff", however the Obama ad bringing up Keating 5 was considered to be "as bad", and shame on OBAMA for being negative when he PROMISED not to. They reported that he had more negative ads than McCain, without emphasizing that his negaitviey was focused on POLICY and NOT personal. They went on and on about the bitter comments till the bitter end, and anticipated McCain finally bringing up Rev Wright. They CRIED AND MOANED that he BROKE HIS WORD on public financing every day for about a month in early summer, and actulally STILL brought that up till the bitter end, not wanting to give him the benefit of the doublt that he clains to not have really MADE an actual promise to use it. But that Pro-Obama media snuck in there somehow, and I missed it! Darn!

[MossyOak]

Using the NY Times' coverage of Cindy McCain and Michelle Obama upon which to base his assertion, Halperin fails to entertain the likely possibility that perhaps, upon investigation, the Times found only good things to say about Michelle and nothing good to say about Cindy and they simply reported the truth.

[catinca]

OMG this is too much. The best man won simple as that. McCain was an adulterer that was rarely spoken about. Palin never went on a Sunday am talk show. AIP? never really investigate? Witch doctor video? Gimme a break & get over it!

[jimmsc]

For every attack McCain set towards Obama, the media had the chance to bring up McCain's involvement with the Keating 5 or McCain's membership with the ultra radical racist group U.S. Council for World Freedom or McCain's direct associations with William Ayers himself through the Annenberg Foundation which contributed to McCain's campaign. But wasn't it David Letterman who finally mocked McCain's terrorist associations with nazi sympathizer G. Gordon Liddy? But the news media never countered the Obama/Ayers argument with McCain's own dubious connections.

But best of all, why didn't the "biased" media bring up McCain's worst association with Saddam Hussein when he chose William Timmons to be his transition chief? Timmons, a lobbyist along with Samir Vincent and Tongsun Park, also both lobbyist worked to influence on behalf of Saddam Hussein to ease international sanctions against his regime and in return all three men would be awarded a contract to resell Iraqi oil.   All three men would have shared at least 45 million if the deal materialized.

But the same sycophantic media responsible for the "pro-Obama coverage" also perpetuated the negative attacks on Obama, while Fox spent most of their time playing character assassination.

[BatedBreath]

Halperin did all he could to make sure coverage was slanted toward the conservatives. Accusing the other side of one's own faults is a strong conservative trait. I hope it's one they decide to drop because it isn't working for them any more.

[Boboday555]

Mark Halperin is a hack.
Who cares what he thinks?
Remember,Halperin said the filthy republicans would retain in control of Congress in 2004 AND that the Old Man McCain would win the election.
The guy's a poor journalist and a worse prognosticator.

[ajax2]

Halperin's conclusion based on one or two examples would not be admitted as proof in any body of learning.

[leftbehind2000]

I'll tell you where the disgusting failure was - MARK HALPERIN.

This guy got it wrong over and over and over again throughout the election season. How do buffoons like this keep their jobs? Worse yet, some still consider him an "expert."

[TTM]

Palin's English skills are lesser than those of an overachieving fourth grader.

Her world culture is comparable to that of an average fourth grader.

She has no understanding of economics, basic civics, geopolitics and geoeconomics.

The media treated her like a celebrity rather than a politician. The coverage of her in the MSM was in factincredibly sexist. If she had been a man, the media would have exposed her shocking ignorance and made her quit in two weeks.

The MSM's fair and balanced approach is mindnumbing. Objectivity is an illusition. Pundits should say what they believe. The public at large would be better served.

[Leota2]

I agree. When Noonan and Murphy were caught in a hot mike we heard the truth. It was funny, shocking and rare to hear the "real" truth. Of course there were mea culpas in 24 hours. And Palin was treated with extreme sexism. But that was mainly by the people who thought she was the second coming. Her female supporters wanted her to be VP because she was a "mommy" like them. And many of her male supporters wanted to take her to bed.

But I don't agree the MSM would have called her out if she had been a man. I mean--we have George W. and the fawners never called that know nothing out.

[TTM]

The sad thing: Bush is 10X intellectually superior to Palin.

[UncleJimbo]

Amen! My mantra here has been that Journalism is not about being "fair",it's about finding the truth and pointing out those who lie!

[TTM]

The American MSM is patently incompetent. There is nothing substantive or informative about their reporting.

[indiethinker]

Absurd. The non-stop coverage of Jeremiah Wright was media love for Obama? The "bitterness", "clinging to guns & religion" quote repeated ad nauseum was a from of idol worship? The repeated references to William Ayres was the media fawning on Obama? After months of this kind of thing, the majority of the media finally, at the end, came to the recognition & judgement that Obama was a tenacious, principled & intelligent politician who had run a brilliant & historic campaign & that McCain was a tired old man who had betrayed all his professed principles & run a feeble, disgraceful campaign. That was not media bias - it was media awareness. The media has no obligation to treat objectively unequal candidates & campaigns as if they were equal.

[ESerafina42]

They did bend over backwards for him during the primaries, but as soon as he won the nomination they turned on him. By the time of the election, I think, they were so fed up with McCain's negativity and mendacity that they were finally closer to objectivity. I just hope that they don't turn on him again in January as they did on Bill Clinton, whose every act was hailed as the "end" of his presidency from day one.

[dwilkerson]

Jeremiah Wright and Bittergate both occurred during the primaries.

[trinidadgirl]

Here's what......­......whet­her or not Mark's analysis makes sense or not, the fact is that Obama won and the positive note here is that through all the stuff they threw at him, and I still say that they were harsher on him, ...he still won by a clear majority. Some things just is.....som­e things just ain't!
Stop trying to dissect. Markie honey, get over it..get over it. The time has come and gone. What worked before cannot and will not work now. That in and of itself is change...o­ne that you can believe in..

[Pulemerci]

Finally someone acknowledges the elephant in the room. From Chris Matthews "I get a thrill up my leg when Obama speaks" to the NY Times reluctantly doing a story (ON A SATURDAY) of Obama and Bill Ayers relationship, the results of the election didn't surprise me. Even SNL (never big fans fo the GOP) did sketches showing how the MSM was in the tank for Obama when he was campaigning in the primaries against Hillary. A combination of a remarkable speaker, campaigner and fund raiser, plus a very friendly national media made a win for even a freshman senator with very little experience a sure thing.

[AnAverageAmerican]

I guess you can say it is simlar to the MSM not challenging Bush on the Iraq war. People in glass houses...T­sk, tsk.

[TTM]

LOL, McCain doesn't know the first thing about economics.

Palin doesn't know the first thing about anything.

Obama is educated, knowledgeable, intellectual curious and cultured.

Whatever the de jure reality is, the fairness doctrine is alive and well in the MSM. Only this could explain how someone less qualified than 80% of American adults could run for VP.

[Pulemerci]

"Obama is educated, knowledgeable, intellectual curious and cultured."

Yes he is all of those things. He is also a very liberal, inexperienced, freshman senator with disturbing associations. If John McCain had worked with someone on a board who had bombed buildings, caused riots and jailbreaks and was unrepentant about it, would the media have scrutinized that relationship and the actions of the domestic terrorist?

[dwilkerson]

Yes, Chris Matthews and the New York Times constitute the entire media.

Is this really all you guys have got?

[lafrance]

Halprin was totally into the tank over Palin and thought she was the greatest thing. He is not smart enough to see this was nothing but a valley girl who could not speak in a coherent sentence. That she made no sense what so ever.
He also still worships at the alter of Drudge and thinks Drudge is God.
He also still thinks conservatives are the biggest deal and still run Washington.
Or maybe he's just going through deep grief over the death of conservatism and that Drudge is no longer seen as relevant and that a new era and rule are descending on Washington where democrats, people he despises unless they have the last name of clinton, are now the ones in control.

[AnAverageAmerican]

I don't know...the­re is just something creepy about the guy. I don't know what it is, but it's something.­..Time will tell.

[SammyGone]

There is a LOT creepy about this guy-He says nothing so smoothly-almost robotic-never off message except when his teleprompter is gone. IE Joe the Plumber. God help us.