The Press Seethes Over Bill Clinton, Shrugs at George Bush

When it comes to Bush's two-year decline, the press has remained oddly detached. By contrast, the recent coverage of Clinton on the campaign trail has been dripping with emotion; with disdain and contempt that bordered on vitriol. For the media, it's simple: The suggestion that Clinton has an oversized ego is far more upsetting and newsworthy than Bush's proven track record of incompetence.

It would have been nice, over the previous eight years, if the same mainstream press corps that today has trouble controlling its roiling contempt for Clinton would have just once or twice flashed the same passion and anger towards Bush for what he's done in the White House and what he's done to this country.

Read the full Media Matters column here.

Comments

[Cathexis]

Excellent point, Mr Boehlert. I wonder if the very number and magnitude of Bush scandals are SO incredibly vast that much of the Press (and many of the American people) haven't simply slipped off into a comforting sense of denial. If they acknowledged the Bush Administration's almost-impossibly long list of outright crimes, much less the laundry list of lies and deceptions, they'd be forced to take action -- it would be impossible to ignore the problems. Beyond impeachment, they'd call for trials in Federal and International courts.

Easier, I theorize, for them to live in denial than to step up to extremely unpleasant and confrontational duty.

[Not Blind]

The MSM has handled Bush with deft gloves, unquestioningly repeated and promoted the administration's propaganda, and thus enabled and promoted the disasterous agenda that has crippled this nation. The NY Times discovered the illegal warrantless wiretapping program, but delayed one full year before bringing it to light. Before the invasion of Iraq, why did not the MSM look into the PNAC, AIPAC and expose the fact Cheney, Wolfowitz and others were reviewing maps of oil fields immediately after entering the White House, or the NSA had begun the illegal warrantless spying on citizens in Feb., '01, not in the aftermath of 9/11?
They spent hours and big bucks to expose and cover the fact Clinton got a blow job, which didn't kill, maim, torture anyone, and did not reak havoc on the environment or our economy. They've been silent on the Bush agenda, which has operated in secrecy, committed perjury 935 times, committed treason (outing Plame), engaged in torture, rape (Halliburton employees and others in Iraq), murder (Blackwater), and watched each of the perpetrators walk off with immunity, or in the case of Liddy, a commutation of his sentence.
The MSM marginalized some good and viable candidates during this primary process, and each has excluded one or more candidates from public televised debates. They send soft questions to their favorites, while grilling the others. They are now trying to mold and shape the outcome of the election process in this country.
Gone are the days of good investigative journalism, truth, exposees and reporting facts and evidence. Now, the MSM and their corporate giants have become bloggers, defenders and enablers of a tyrranical regime, and have forsaken their First Amendment rights.
I just hope their profits and stock options are worth their souls.

[BeeOplentee]

Clinton made a mockery of the Presidency in the eyes of the world with his cigar antics in the Oval Office. His bufoonery fed into the contempt of those who would dare assault us (and who subsequently did). Bush, on the other hand, had to face the resultant death and destruction due to Clinton's acts.

[shaggles]

Right as usual Eric. The press has ignored or excused every blunder this disaster of an administration has made but they can't get over they're hatered of a guy who's been out of office for 7 years.

[patb]

Good column Eric. ENVY-- Clinton was and still is more LIKED and a greater STAR than they. I wait to see what they talk about when Bush starts his next war that I believe is soon to come. See the Smirking Chimp's piece Doomsday for the Greenback by Mike Whitney Feb. 4 2008. I have been reading this same kind of piece for over a year. Will we have an election in Nov. 2008? Bush has everything in place to prevent it.

[BBackSoon]

Preach on, Brother!

[fairwitness]

Agreed--the sheer magnitude of mendacity has overwhelmed us. But the press should have been TRYING, at least, to report the truth. They were not, and I, for one, will NEVER trust them again.

And, btw, it is clearly not "incompetence" that we've seen these last 7 dark years; what is so perversely called INCOMPETENCE is exactly what Bush and Cheney intended, not failures or mistakes, as they are so often portrayed, but CRIMES AGAINST HUMANITY. They got everything they wanted, achieved the goals of the neocons perverse fantasies: Our government is completely disfunctional (easier to overthrow by a small cabal of neocon executive branch insiders), our military is overextended and totally wasted (easier to extract uncountable masses of dollars for their friendly "defense" contractor co-conspirators to "rebuild" our material stockpiles of equipment for the next war), our legal system and justice department are corrupt beyond repair (easier to usurp the powers of the government to that same small cabal of neocons withour consequences), our reputation abroad is that of a drunken bully with nukes (easier to dominate and plunder the rest of the world--read:OIL), our economy is devastated (with trillions in debt loaded on the backs of our childern and grandchildren so as to enable Republican gluttony and glorious empire at public expense) and our people and press are completely neutered and brought-to-heel (easier to extract complicities and taxes in consolidation of power in that cabal of Republican Masters-of-the-Universe).

The whole situation is another in mankind's sorry history of clever, brutal, evil men seducing, perverting and corrupting the good. America as we knew it is gone, a failed experiment in civil liberty, individual engranchisement and "government of, by and for the People".

[Fairfloss]

This could very well be a glimpse into how history will see this whole Bush, Clinton, Bush, (?), era. (If the Clintons are elected again, who knows, but expect trouble.)

I do believe, as much as you hate it, history will be much kinder to George W. Bush, than Bill Clinton.

Many Presidents who are marginalized and condemned by the left leaners, during their presidency, usually fair far better in the history books.

It's like that saying, you know "You can't see the forest for the trees!"

The deep roots of Islamic Extremism and hatred, does not go back to America. It goes back to Europe, but Europe is an easy victory for their advancement, if it weren't for the protection of America.

[desmirl]

It's the difference between describing a molehill and a mountain. Clinton's campaign gaffes are easily corraled and described--usually in well-deserved and not-so-glowing terms. Bush's incompetence, hubris, mendacity, and yes, outright criminality are so enormous, so towering that it's like trying to describe Mt. Everest with a preschooler's vocabulary. It will take decades of hardworking writers and a whole library of books to describe the malfeasance of George W. Bush.