McCain and Palin are Laughing at the Press -- and it's the Press' Fault

Instead of recoiling from the media fact-checking, the Republicans have adopted a post-press approach and simply don't care what the press does or says about their honesty. More to the point, the candidates don't think it will matter on Election Day.

They may be right. And that's the media's fault. Journalists have reported their way right into the margins. Submerged in trivia and tactics for the past 18 months, the press has damaged its ability -- its authority -- to referee the campaign. How? The press has consciously folded its work into the larger entertainment culture.

Honestly, do voters really (I mean really) see that big of a difference between reading about Sarah Palin in People and reading about her in Newsweek, whose 2008 campaign coverage often has been driven by an open, breathless embrace of celebrity and entertainment? I'm not so sure voters do.

Read the full Media Matters column here.

Comments

[leftbehind2000]

The Bush Administration has taught us that the audacity of the lie is directly proportionate to the amount of belief you will earn from the American people.

[hopeless277]

Sounds like Rove to me. Feed the fools enough BS to choke a horse, then after they've throughly discredited themselves, start lying about everything and watch people eat it up even AFTER the press debunks and debunks. It should work beautifully.

[hchriste]

Why do people not realize, using G.W. as an example, when you lie and lies are; blant untruth, half truthss and the real truth presented in a way to mean something different than it is, that is the kind of government you get. Campaign liars if they get in office do not suddenly become honest they remain liars. Ninety Six lies to go to war in Iraq and one could make a list. The McCain campaign profess to be devote Christians, well Jesus said all comandments bear equal weight, none are more important than any other one. Seems tro me there is one that goes something like, Thou shall not bear false witness. The McCain and Plain Jane can talk the walk but they don't walk the talk.

[1grape]

There have been a laundry list of verified complaints online about Palin's governing style:

The per diem money while she was at her home, the money she took from the state for travel expenses for your kids and husband (not exactly government employees), the $50K redecorating of her mayoral office (did not ask permission to spend that city $ for that), and so many more things that I have read online, one by one.

I am just waiting for SOMEONE in the MSM to make that list and then discuss it publicly. But, they are all such _______. It just goes to show you how much power these people running have when the major networks won't run with a story that is proven and floating out there in cyberspace. It is one of the very saddest things about this election year.

Plus - on the Huff. Post blog today - there is a wonderful article talking about how many people listen all day long only to very hard right media outlets. And, I'm sure they think they're getting the full story. I like to go look at Liberal, Independent (if that's possible), and Conservative blogs/websites. It's interesting to see how things are spun in different places, but also very sad.

[goredstates]

Thats the genius of obama. No governing style so no complaints.

[DobermanTracker]

I am woman who has lived in Anchorage for 38 years.

It is time for reporters, regardless of their gender to "man-up" and, if nothing, else write about and demand that Palin submit herself to serious journalist: Barbara Walters,Charlie Rose, Bill Moyers, Washington Post, New York Times, televised political journalist.

TrooperGate is much bigger than people realize. This woman has told lie upon lie about why she fired Walt Monegan, a well respected, trusted law enforcement officer in this state for over 35 years.
Trooper age is NOT about politics norTrooper Wooten, Palin's ex-brother in law.

It is about Palin and her lack of character, integrit, & honesty;about her easy abuse of power and her narcissistic ability to top one lie after another despite each lie contradicting the previous one.

She out of touch with reality in believing the public does not realize she is contradicting herself and her statements, media and news videos, prove it.

Troopergate is not a case of he said, she said. It is a case of she said, and then she said. Troopergate shows no logic because Palin does not care about logic. She only cares about saying one lie after another long enough and loud enough that enough people will believe her.

The Anchorage Daily News onlin site has a link where you can follow the media reporting of TrooperGate from beginning to the present.

The media needs to expose Palin's intentional lying which is why she CANNOT SUBMIT TO SERIOUS JOURNALIST.

[peppermint]

You are absolutely right, I'm going to report her to our NY Congressman Charlie Rangel about this. I'm sure he'll get to the bottom of this. Oh that's right, this is the Huff Post, right and nobody heard about his latest shenanigans.

[londonexpat]

You are spot on, my friend and it is sad to say. The dumbing down of America continues-Idiocracy reigns.

[SamThornton]

Although McCain and Palin may well be sneering at the media, their audience isn't the media, it's the people to whom the media conveys their lies to. They know full well that as long is their messages are repeated, it doesn't really matter if the media also claims they are outright lies. So long as they keep getting covered and quoted, they win.

[MBryant]

By not just covering, but obssessing over stories like Ana Nicole Smith - the O.J. trial and Britney's problems - the MSM has degraded themselves. Increasingly the National Enquirer and Entertainment Tonight look as legit as NBC and CNN and Fox. Increasingly Jon Stewart and BIll Maher have more cogent analysis and honest perspective.

Sarah Palin is the candidate the MSM deserves! Someone who looks great - has a beautiful, but complex family - colorful background - some hint of scandal around the edges. And she has those zingers - "hockey mom", "bulldog/lipstick" - her soundbytes are as good as anyones. She's perfect for the tabloid/fashion/entertainment/women's/newsmagine cover, the let's talk about thirty seconds of content for five minutes an inane way - every hour on the hour - cable talking head news thing, the Larry King/The View/Ellen - maybe I'm just a celebrity thing or maybe I'm about politics talk show.

Who wants a boring old guy who's got a legislative portfolio and wants to talk issues? The MSM has a candidate designed for them - they should be thankful.

[PurplePhase]

Undoubtedly the MSM let the whole country down and others around the world who keep an interest in us. Let's face it, the MSM has been dumbing down itself since the early 90s and more so since the OJ Simpson trial. We don't have the free press our founding fathers envisioned as an instrumental part of our democracy.

Let's face something else. It's up to us to do something about it because the MSM responds to ratings, subscriptions and sales, not our fundamental interests and I don't mean a voyeuristic interest in the lives of feeble celebrities. I gave up watching the infotainment on TV and use the internet as my main news source. More and more are doing this. TV, newspapers, magazines feel this trend in ever decreasing revenues and profits.

The MSM especially the TV networks have been deaf to our complaints for decades but they aren't blind to lost revenues. Too bad for some it's too late. If this is what it takes for the MSM to clean up its act, so be it.

[2stupid4words]

Assuming that the average American is in love with the Hollywood, even though the people of Hollywood are sconed for their decadent lifestyles, is it no wonder that sensationalism is preferred over substance? The question I would pose to the media is: Have the reporters been trained to look for newsworthy tidbits or allowed to assume that people want to read the sensational and be-damn the worthiness of the content? Does integrity mean anything? Does education mean anything? Where are the media getting their journalists and reporters? Seeking celebrity status is a Hollywood starlet's goal for film roles. What is the goal of the reporters and journalist? It may be that the media has sold their souls in order to become famous.

[reggie1298]

Should the candidates have responded to the lies regarding book-banning and troopergaete? These topics are the mother's milk of Media Matters, KOS, Huffpo and are simply discredited one-by-one. OK, on to the next smear - maybe this one will stick.

[ProfessorDuh]

And they're not lies.

[PurplePhase]

reggie,

If they are lies why won't the Troopergate investigation go away and her own state government investigating her?

If the book banning is a lie all the librarian had to do is deny it. Instead the librarian refuses to comment and that speaks volumes against Palin.

Palin didn't lie when she said she opposed the bridge to nowhere but she deceives the public by not telling them she was for it before she was against it and she doesn't talk about the $200+ million earmarked for the bridge accepted for other purposes.

Was Palin acting responsibly as Wasilla's "community organizer" when her town became Alaska's meth capital?

What kind of a mother leaves behind her newborn with Downs Syndrome to trek along campaign trails?

How does Palin account for her daughter's pre-marital pregnancy after years of preaching abstinence?

JFK didn't have executive experience and he became one of our greatest presidents. Why is Palin's so called executive experience so crucial? What about that foreign experience of hers? She sure showed us how much she knows about the Bush Doctrine, didn't she? When did proximity to Russia become foreign experience?

Why won't most of her closest friends vote for her?

Per diem reimbursements are for legitimate expenses, not for expenses incurred while living in one's home.

Revealing partial truths and parsing words are not lying but just as deceptive and we see through that.

[MPeter]

The press in this country has become a joke. CNN, FOX, CBS, ABC, NBC and the print media have all become rich and bloated, they no longer remember what their role should be in a democracy. They already chose their candidate and it does not matter that he is athritic, demented, suffers from PTSD and has had at least four recurrances of melanoma. They are enamoured by Palin, the gunslinging wannabe who speaks faster than she thinks. We are sending this country to drain.

[TakeNoNeoConPrisoners]

The lunatic right has for years demonized all sorts of groups and institutions - teachers, lawyers, gays, feminists, liberals and oh yes the press. In so doing, they have divided and conquered and won elections.. The MSM has now been marginialized as the Repubs intended so no one pays much attention anymore to MSM news. Also partly the fault of the MSM themselves since the CEOs decided decades ago that news was a business and had to turn a profit. Consequently, they changed genuine news reporters into sensationalists, entertainers and fluff peddlers. And the worse part of it is that the MSM always pretends that there are 2 sides to the truth lending credence to lies, liars and criminal administrations like the one we have had for the past 8 years. Dumbed down is too mild a term to apply to what has happened to Americans. It is more accurate that we have been deliberately and maliciously brainwashed by the forces of corporate fascism. All of Americas institutions, economy and social well being is at risk b/c the few the rich and the powerful take advantage to get even wealthier and more powerful. My brother and sister Americans are now facing the beginning of the end of democracy and opportunity in America. Even Obama if he wins, may be unable to reverse this evil force.

[jeanrenoir]

Good post. As the imploding of Wall St. has just demonstrated, ALL the institutions of America have been totally DUMBED DOWN in America's Age of Decadence, in which greed, porn, celebrity, hedonism, and mindless stupidity rule our culture from the White House and the new NY TImes on down. America is now a national farce of dumb and dumber. If Obama can by some miracle get elected by this terminally dumb electorate, he's the perfect guy to help turn this ship away from the iceberg, but the moronic white working class voters of America, the stupidest of the stupid, may blow him out of the water before he gets a chance to save their sorry behinds, in spite of 'em.

[plainthoughts]

Thanks for that truthful assessment of how stupid and backwards some people are to the fact that they are losing everything. Jesus Christ could come down from heaven and tell them what is right and they will still doubt. Remember Exodus in the bible and how the jews where freed from pharoh. They doubted Moses and how God made them stay in the wilderness until the generation that rebelled against god had died. You have the same mentality with these people. Obama will win in spite of their doubts. The goal we must meet is turning out in record numbers to defeat the stupid and misguided voters that never think but just hold on to their hate.