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

[pmag88]

Most of the negatives from the Obama side came out early, providing him an opportunity to get the ear of the American people and show that he is a unique and gifted leader. Most of McCains negatives came at critical times near the end of the contest, and his response was weak and ineffective.

[WoodyCPM]

Halperin is just pissed off because his candidate one. The one he shilled for and was biased toward during the campaign. What a lying sack of S...H...I...T is Mark Halperin. Sit down and shut up Halperin!

[WoodyCPM]

Lost, because his candidate lost! As in didn't win! Geeesh!

[murly]

Don't you wish this site had an Edit-After-Posting feature? I, too, have hit that Post a Comment button just as I realize that I spelled something wrong or made a poor word choice. C'mon, whoever set up this site--give us an Edit option!

[jellinda]

The major problem with the media today is the sorting out of PUNDIT and JOURNALIST. When the news media can't distinguish between the two, critical thinking goes out the door. I don't remember Walter Cronkite editorializing - ever - until he left the biz, wrote and went on projects he selected. Then of course, there's us, the public, who think that mere reportage is boring.... We can't have it both ways.

[strandwolf]

Plus there's about 10 million voters who got practically nothing but bigot spin on talk radio. They think that Hannity, Limbaugh, and worse--there are worse--put out the unvarnished truth. They are still carrying on about Obama's birth certificate! It goes on and on. Ayers, too.

[canto1951]

You know what? The media were such shameless shills for the Bush administration for its first six years that I have no problem with their cheerleading for the Obama campaign. "Fair and balanced" took awhile for us to achieve, but we finally got it!

[strandwolf]

It ain't right, but there's by golly some poetry to this phenomenon.

[majorteddy]

Mark Halperin is so anti-Obama, he can't contain himself. Mark, you said , during the week that John McCain stated"The fundamentals of the economy are strong", the same week he suspended his campaign, when he countermanded the "fundamentals " statement 3 hours later, when he had a general meltdown, that he won the week. This just shows how biased YOU are. Don't blame the rest of the media for slaying McCain-Palin . It wasn't them who forced McCain-Palin to do and say all the dumb stuff, they just reported it. You can't write an article praising screw-ups like that.

[trinidadgirl]

Mark needs to get over the shock that no-one is listening to him anymore. Mark my dear, you need some new writings and a new modus operandi The old simply does not work or rather is not working for you any more! You are 'stuck'. Growth is necessary, before you become more irrelevent.

[sueno]

Thank you-

[solid]

Who is this Halperin dood? A nobody if you ask me.

And he's about to lose a perfectly good MacBook Pro which is perilously close to falling off the edge of that counter.

[ramal]

I suppose that having an entire network (Faux News) as well as 95% of all "talk radio" against Obama doesn't fit into Halperin's tidy equation? That Halperin is even published in the pages of "Time" shows just how low that magazine has fallen.

[Yohomegirl]

The media reconized what we all did, that Obama represents our salvation.

[sdskelton03]

When Obama overcame death, that sealed it for me. He got my vote!!

[BarackMan]

LOL

[oncethere]

Well, how would he cover 200,000 people turning out to cheer Obama and take in his message of hope and change and 20,000 turning out to listen to McCain and Palin's snide remarks about Obama palling around with terrorists and his communist learnings.

[ChurchAndState]

You mean the media failed to do it's job with diligence and integrity? No. I'm shocked. The guy's a stooge, but even stooges can be half right.

[StillAmused]

Read David Sirota's "The Media's Own Innocent Bystander Fable"...

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/david-sirota/the-medias-own-innocent-b_b_145177.html

Halperin is a classic example of the current crop of editorial lightweights who believe a journalist's most important tool is a bubble level rather than honest, critical reporting.

In the full article, he laments -- as a prime example of his warped thesis -- what he characterizes as biased profiles in the NY Times of Michelle Obama and Cindy McCain which favored Obama (debatable, since McCain does have a worthy record of public service).

He overlooks the ubiquitous, droning characterization of the actual CANDIDATE McCain as a "war hero" by the press (McCain was a P.O.W. -- there's a DIFFERENCE) and the utter fallacy, somehow tenuously predicated on that mischaracterization, that McCain was distinctly better qualified on foreign policy and national security... disregarding the fact that McCain was among the EARLIEST cheerleaders for the catastrophic, immoral and unjustified invasion and occupation of Iraq, chirps repeatedly that "we're winning" and believes in the imaginary, non-existent and endless neocon "global war on terror" championed by Bush The Lesser.

(is there also a "global war on grand theft auto"?)

"Fair" reporting entails telling the TRUTH. If one candidate is an empty suit running on a vaporous, factually-insupportable platform of jingoistic slogans, THAT'S the truth... and THAT'S fair reporting.

Critical thinking used to be a valued skill that marked top journalists... once, a long time ago.

[dawlishgal]

This is just plain BS....by failing to cover the outright lies, half-truths and obfuscations about Obama and his record that McCain and (especially) Palin were telling, the net result was a media favoritism to McCain/Palin.

What has happened to capital J Journalism anyhow? It used to be a profession. Now it is filled with dimwits who majored in something like rec leadership, morons who--although perhaps photogenic-- couldn't think their ways out of paper bags. And their ethics are as low as their intelligence.

My subscription to Time is about to expire, and I was debating whether or not to renew it. Decision made! Thanks to Mr. Halperin for removing any trace of doubt of ambivalance.

[islanbatman]

So the media did a better job in the 2004 campaign, in highlighting Bush's failures? going public with the warrantless wire-tapping? calling out the Swiftboat Liars smears of Kerry? following up on the truthfulness of Bush's dubious record in the Texas Guard (rather than on the narrow authenticity of a letter about Bush) in avoiding service in Vietnam? in evaluating the economic impact of Bush's tax cuts for the rich and his exploding deficits? in pressing Bush on who authorized torture at Abu Ghraib? on communicating to the public the total failure of Bush to plan for the occupation of Iraq? If it had done even a half-assed job on any of those, Bush would have lost in 2004. So, don't tell me the "bias in the 2008 campaign was worse than any other in living memory". That's crap.

[Moka11]

Halperin's own bias was apparent countless times reflected in his countless appearances on Charlie Rose, MSNBC, CNN, and Sunday Morning pundit hack shows. His love for Karl Rove is evidenced in his book with Politico's John Harris and his professed "Matt Drudge is king" remark this past year.
Halperin is in denial of his increasing irrelevance as most people become more informed and less swayed by punditry.
People like Peggy Noonan, Mark Halperin, David Broder, William Safiire, Bill Kristol, and the like must remind themselves that they are so lucky to be working in an environment that increasingly has an audience that laughs at their commentary and wonders what world they live in.

[trinidadgirl]

Moka 11. All these names are about to become has-beens if they do not stretch and evolve. Their thinking is what has them more irrelevant and less credible!

[SupremeIdiot]

Maybe there wasn't anything negative to say about Obama or his campaign. You cannot report something that doesn't exist.

Maybe the press should have made things up so the stories would even out? I think that's what Halperin is getting at.

[sdskelton03]

I think Obama's only weakness may have been his perfection in all things. Not just some things, but all things.

[IndianCommenter]

ok, but did McCain win the day?