Obamania Down the Drain

April was indeed the cruelest month for Democratic candidate Barack Obama.

If he turns out to win the Democratic presidential nomination, the explanation "media darling" from the early months of the primary season will turn out to be inoperative. Obamania was epitomized back then by the famous comment by Hardball's Chris Matthews: hearing Obama's oratory gave him a "thrill going up my leg." Now, if Obama wins, it will be despite his coverage in the mainstream media, not because of it.

Proof comes from Tyndall Report's analysis of the most mainstream of the mainstream media, the broadcast networks' weekday nightly newscasts. In April, the tone of the coverage of Barack Obama and Hillary Rodham Clinton was roughly equally negative -- but Obama suffered twice as much of it.

It is easy to trace the gradual spread of negative questions about Obama's candidacy. They started on YouTube with sound bites from sermons from his longtime pastor Jeremiah Wright. Those clips spread to cable with Fox News Channel in the vanguard. Then Obama's reference to bitter and clinging small town voters surfaced in The Huffington Post's own Off the Bus section. They were all wrapped up together on ABC News' so-called Gotcha Debate in Philadelphia with its notorious first 45 minutes of issue-free questioning.

What is notable is that April was officially the month when these themes finally crossed over to the mainstream media, to those most risk-averse venues for establishment journalism, the broadcast network news. When Barack Obama had a thoroughgoing negative month on the evening newscasts then he can by no stretch be dubbed a media darling. CBS' Dean Reynolds stated it flatly as he rounded out his network's coverage on the last day of April: "Obama's campaign has had a rough spell, from his big loss in Pennsylvania to the reemergence of his outspoken former pastor."

April was a busy month of news, what with Gen. David Petraeus' testimony on the Iraq War and the visit of Pope Benedict XVI and the raid on the Yearning for Zion ranch in Texas and the 40th anniversary of the assassination of Martin Luther King. Yet Campaign 2008 still attracted almost four hours of coverage on the three broadcast networks' weekday evening newscasts (228 min total--ABC 80 min, CBS 82, NBC 66), accounting for 18% of the three-network newshole.

The simplest way to divide campaign coverage during April is into three broad categories: the candidates' campaigns--112 min; the primary contests--93 min; everything else (issues, demographics, tactics, horse race, polls etc)--23 min. Obviously Pennsylvania (83 min vs 10 for NC-Indiana) dominated the primary coverage. As for the candidate coverage, Barack Obama attracted more attention than Hillary Rodham Clinton and John McCain combined (62 min v Rodham Clinton 26, McCain 24).

This is the key to understanding why April was so cruel to Obama. These two grids (Obama here and Rodham Clinton here) list the angle chosen each time any of the networks decided to assign a reporter to file from either of the two candidates' campaigns. A perusal of the story topics (click any thumbnail in the grid to see the news videostream itself) reveals that, generally speaking, neither candidacy was considered newsworthy unless something bad was happening. Rodham Clinton's troubles in April ranged from a lack of funds, to a staff shake-up, to arguments with her husband about that sniper fire fib. Obama's troubles overwhelmingly concerned the Rev Wright. The key difference between the two is not a contrast in quality but in quantity. Each suffered from a negative tone. Obama suffered from twice as much of it.

Similarly, the angles chosen to cover the primary in Pennsylvania during April can be checked here. Sure enough, much of the coverage was of the travelogue variety, features explaining the demographics of the commonwealth. But again, whenever the networks chose to focus on the political controversies at stake in the primary, what they found newsworthy were the aspects that made Obama look negative: the interrogation he received at the hands of Charles Gibson and George Stephanopoulos at the ABC News debate in Philadelphia; and the vox pop reaction to his bitter-&-clinging comments.

Partisans for Obama may see in these numbers evidence of media bias and journalistically unethical accusations of guilt-by-association with Pastor Wright--although it is worthy of note that questions about Obama's association with onetime Weatherman Bill Ayres have not crossed over as a mainstream topic on any of the three newscasts.

At Tyndall Report, we have an explanation other than bias--although the ethics questions about guilt-by-association seem plausible. Our explanation rests on the new style of political coverage we have called Reality Gameshow Journalism, a style that sees the presidential campaign as an elimination contest between larger-than-life personalities, that focuses on the character rather than the ideology of each, that is interested in socio-psychological factors more than issues, that believes that character is most clearly revealed when a candidate is subjected to the ordeal of near elimination.

Under the rubric of Reality Gameshow Journalism, questions about a pastor's words are transformed from guilt-by-association to insights into judgment and loyalty. Under this rubric, the frontrunner would naturally receive twice the attention of the second place candidate since the closer one comes to victory the more scrutiny one deserves. And under this rubric, any coverage that helps tighten the race makes a possible elimination primary all the more compelling and dramatic.

Barack Obama received all the benefits of the Reality Gameshow style of coverage in January and February, when Hillary Rodham Clinton was the frontrunner and he was the obvious challenger to test her fitness for victory. In April he suffered the downside in spades--setting us all up for Tuesday's contests in North Carolina and Indiana.

I wonder who will get thrown off the island.

Comments

[jimchap]

now you know

[MariaHopeful]

What is most unbelievable to me is that while the media - Matthews, Abrams, Cooper, Blitzer, Dobbs, O'Reilly, Hannity, Gibson et al - was putting Obama through the wringer, we have heard not one peep about the significance of Bill Clinton's impeachment and disbarment for the Clinton nomination and presidency (God forbid). There is so much "stuff" floating out there and yet we hear nothing. Not even the Columbian deal was deemed to be worthy of news. I believe that most of the negative news is definitely racist. The media is in the business of protecting people. They are protecting the Clintons now much as they protected GWB about his youthful problems and about everything Micheal Moore exposed in his documentary. But Barack Obama is black so they feel free to attack unmercifully under the guise of "electabil­ity."

[yoyo1959]

BOOHOO!! Your crocodile tears come too late; Obama was not focused on negatively until 1 year after he started running. These same pundits MERCILESSLY TORE INTO CLINTON for months, giving McCain also a free pass. So please spare us your wacky statement; media are not racist, they are mysognistic!!!

[jimchap]

is that the game? misogynistic verses racist? That's just stupid polemics. How about smart verses stupid? Smart won last night.

[wm1066]

Pretzel logic!
Your referring to the "Tyndall Reports"
Talk about self inflating.

[writeaway]

Is Rodham Clinton like Hussein Obama? Should the media only report negatives on Clinton?
Should they ignore Obie-wans negatives like Bush ignore the negatives on Iraq/Afghanistan? Reporting on Wright who Obama listed as a spiritual advisor and his 'spiritual' advice
is for God to Damn America and that's not important?

[wm1066]

You are sputtering­... slow down and take a deep breath.
Only then will you be able to use the "typewriter with the TV on top".

[danceswithyids]

If Obama does lose, he will have been undone by his own errors on how to handle things when they came to a head.

[EspressoAtNoon]

>> "Our explanation rests on the new style of political coverage we have called Reality Gameshow Journalism, a style that sees the presidential campaign as an elimination contest between larger-than-life personalities, that focuses on the character rather than the ideology of each, that is interested in socio-psychological factors more than issues, that believes that character is most clearly revealed when a candidate is subjected to the ordeal of near eliminatio­n."

If it were really focused on the CHARACTER rather than the ideology, then wouldn't Bill's and Hillary's continuous lies be more of a legitimate story?

Rev. Wright is like 6 degrees of separation. Farrakhan says something biggoted, and then Reverend Wright supports F's statements, so since Obama knows and sat occasionally in the church of Wright, then he must agree with everything Farrakhan says. It's a media hyped non-story.

But when Clinton lies about all of her experience, and lies about this, and distorts that, then that directly reflects everything about her character. And yet Bosnia, Northern Ireland, SCHIP, and every other lie she gave was in the media for only a single week.

This Rev. Wright story was in the media for over a month and a half before Wright even reappeared in front of the Press Club to defend himself and throw Obama under the bus.

[RocketmanBob]

"Under the rubric of Reality Gameshow Journalism, questions about a pastor's words are transformed from guilt-by-a­ssociation to insights into judgment and loyalty"

If they are not then Mr. Obama's explanations, prior to last week, are simply empty, disingenuous words; seems like the old politics to me!

"Under this rubric, the frontrunner would naturally receive twice the attention of the second place candidate since the closer one comes to victory the more scrutiny one deserves"

If the media had vetted Mr. Obama thoroughly in the beginning, instead of fawning all over him, this stalemate would have been avoided. Instead of simply trumpeting how the first black president would set us free of the shackles of racism, they should have been seeing if that man was worthy of the office from the start. Although I agree that appearance does matter to some actions should matter to all!

This man will lose the election for us in the fall. Wise up and support Hillary! Only she can beat McCain!

[DoTheMath]

Nice try. Front-runner status doesn't explain all the disparities, though.

Why no interest in her lapel pins? Not even half as much? Why no follow-through on the weathermen pardons? Why no interest in her Fellowship church? Why no mention in the mainstream media of the campaign financing fraud suit against Bill Clinton (but involving the financing of Hillary's NY campaign) - the one for which she managed to get her material witness testimony postponed until after the November election despite the fact that this has already been pending for some time? The start of the Rezko trial was plastered all over the media the day before the Ohio and Texas primaries, with Obama's name figuring prominently in the coverage, although Obama isn't even expected to be called as a witness. The Peter Paul case is directly related to Clinton's candidacy, yet we have to dig deeply to get any information about it at all.

Your reality gameshow observation is accurate. Unfortunately. Your claim of fairness within that structure misses the mark. Bzzzz.

[rzan]

You may be very sure that if Hillary steals the nomination, the Republicans will be going after Paul vs. Clinton. The superdelegates should be very concerned about this pending case.

[wwsword]

Part II

In total, the press - except Fox News, which has actually approached its slogan for the first time in its history - has been anti-Hillary and pro-Obama. The media even played Obama's shameful game of playing the race card on Bill and Hillary.

This election is close because, despite the overwhelmingly negative media coverage of Hillary from the start of the campaign, mainly in the form of rampant sexism (the depth of the loathing is sublimated woman-hating), Obama is imploding at the end. He's symbolism over substance. His candidacy is a stage-crafted personality cult.

Hillary Clinton deserves a lot of credit for finally toughing up her strategy and going after him a bit. I wish she would have gone further. But I believe her fear that Obama may win this thing keeps her from going all out and damaging his chances in November. This is a false assumption on her part, because the Republicans will have a field day with him independent of anything Hillary says or does. But, since people already despise her, she would only throw fuel on the fire burning her reputation. If she loses, she needs to salvage something from the process.

[wwsword]

At some point the media had to start vetting Obama. They ignored the Wright issue for months until forced to deal with the matter when it went viral on youtube. Obama lost the most important primaries in Ohio and Pennsylvania (having already lost Florida). His ABC News performance was on a G W Bush order of magnitude in terms of embarrassment. On the other hand, the media has still largely stayed away from Rezko and other associations. And Jeremiah Wright isn't the only preacher who makes these types of arguments that Obama is closely associated with. Just wait until the general. If Obama is the nominee, the corporate media will drag out everything and McCain will win a mandate.

Hillary-bashers love to talk about baggage, but the reason why the media can't easily ramp up negative coverage on her to balance the negative coverage Obama generates for himself is because the baggage argument is bogus. She didn't have an affair. Staying with her husband is a nonissue, except that there is merit is keeping one's family together (there are more important things than sex, after all). Whitewater was a bust - and not in the damning way. Hillary didn't kill Vince Foster. So she and her husband made money. What Clinton has going against her is that (a) she is a woman and journalists can throw around evil woman references like Lady McBeth and Queen of Mean and (b) she's not a black man.

[MGCook]

Trouble is John Kerry wasn't a traitor, he was a hero. And that was demonstrable.

The Republicans didn't care.

You think the Republicans care that Whitewater turned up nothing? And the options trading? And Travelgate? And billing records? And the furniture? And the Library? And on and on and on.

The trouble with playing this game is that the Republicans don't care. They'll trot out all the greatest hits and no one will know which way is up. It doesn't matter whether it's true or not.

Hillary keeps saying that she's been thoroughly vetted, and that she's fought these smear campaigns and won.

If she thinks the fact that the majority of Americans have a negative opinion of her and the majority of Americans believe she is untruthful is evidence of "winning" against a smear campaign, I have only one thing to say" "It depends what the meaning of 'is' is."

[yoyo1959]

Well put. Clinton has received 90% of all negative media coverage over the last year. Mark my words, Obama will lose to McCain and the media will be complicit. They have fawned over Obama but will turn on him and the Republicans will eat him alive. He is largely an untested candidate.

[Tomlastliberalleft]

No election I can remember has ever come close to making me as angry as I am right now. The idea of having to watch another night of MSM horse manure is more than I can stomach. I’ve reach my own personal endpoint with the networks. Tonight, I’m going to watch Dan Rather. I’m not sure what happen to the news media but I’m pretty sure this is the last election they will have any impact on. By 2012 the internet will have blown the doors off their gig and it would appear we all have discovered yet another way to polarize the electorate and deflect attention from the issues. Democracy can survive a many things, but mass stupidity is not one of them. I love you America, but I don’t like you very much right now.

[Lemeritus]

As Mencken said, "No one ever went broke underestimating the intelligence of the American people."

My apoplectic moment with the MSM came when GE/NBC/MSNBC went to court rather than allow Dennis Kucinich to debate in Nevada. Think about that for a minute... this after marginalizing every candidate who was not Clinton and Obama.

I don't hold much hope for 2012. First, if we don't stop John McCain, we may not be seeing another presidential election -- if you can't. in your passion to defeat one Democratic candidate over the other, focus on the destruction another Republican administration will wreck on our country and Constitution, you're really not getting it! Second, if we devolve to a point where vanity blogs and our ever so clever comments to them replace the value of professional journalism, we will have lost any semblance of a common dialogue or language with which to debate.

[Tomlastliberalleft]

I essentially agree. You have to admit the number of professional journalist is declining rather rapidly. What is more, if they do manage to get on the TV they have to endure a shouting match with some god awful spindoctor hack hired on to play the role of carnival barker. The local media are often worse still. Here in Dallas we get the Dallas Morning News, these brainiacs endorsed Huckabee, twice. Nobody took them seriouly the first time, the second time they did it because McCain is clearly too liberal to suit their demented taste. So what is left, talk Radio? No thank you, better to die in a vat of your own filth than put up with wackomatic call-in insanity. By 2012 I think things will be so much worse we will look back on this ugly scene as "the good ole days."

[Moose49]

"I wonder who will get thrown off the island."

I wonder if the mainstream media will ever decide to cover elections with intelligence and reason and a sense of its profound responsibility to provide voters with the information they need to make the best possible choice. I wonder if those of us who find MSM coverage detestable, patronizing, condescending and moronic will keep bashing them over the head until they actually change rather than accepting, if decrying a pathetic status quo. I wonder if the MSM will stop repeating and rehashing right-wing Republican story lines and join the reality-based community.

It's only the future of our democracy that's at stake.

[bazztrap]

If Obama loses because of wright it is a dishonest election and instead of moving over to Hillary Obamanation might as well move over to Nader

[altohone]

Obamamania didn't start with the media.
In case you've forgotten, the label wasn't meant as a compliment.

Handing the key's of our democracy to the media makes little sense either.
Rationalizing their efforts offends me... even though you're critical.

[unscum]

The problem with Hillary is she no Bill Clinton. If she was even half as good a speaker and half as charismatic as her husband was in the 1990s Obama would have been blown out of the water a long time ago. She a terrible politician with so much baggage that she'll never be able to beat McCain.

[wwsword]

So being a good speaker and having charisma makes a good politician? I guess I thought it was intelligence and policies.

[eznelson]

Is Hillary really for the common man and woman?

1) Hillary voted AGAINST the Vitter amendment which PREVENTS the government from confiscating guns from law abiding citizens during emergencies or martial law. Interestingly Obama voted for it and for the rights of gun owners.

2) The Clintons recently revealed on their tax returns that they had amassed fortunes of 109 million dollars.

3) Hillary was instrumental in pushing FOR and getting NAFTA passed which has been a disaster for American workers. According to documents released by the National Archives, Hillary in 1993 attended at least 5 meetings that were used to win approval of NAFTA by Congress and these documents detailed her role in promoting NAFTA while she was first lady.

4) Hillary along with the Republicans voted for the Iraq War which have taken billions of our tax paying dollars out of our pockets and put them into the pockets of oil companies and defense contractors.

[bos123]

Hillary dint declare 24 millions in hers and Bill income tax. This is new.

[bos123]

Hillary dint declare 24 million dollars in her income taxes.Go to "TPMcafe"