On Sunday's Face The Nation, Doyle McManus, Washington bureau chief of the L.A. Times (yes, Mr. Zell, they still have a Washington bureau, why do you ask?), gave an invaluable insight into the way stories do, or don't, become "news". Asked about the supposed John McCain gaffe, in which the Senator conflated Iran's interests in Iraq (Shiite) with Al-Qaeda (Sunni), McManus explained that it didn't become a major news story this week because "Iraq wasn't what was on voters' minds."
Forget the fact that the supposed gaffe had been spoken by McCain more than once (including on Hugh Hewitt's radio show), or that McCain had even had to be corrected by Joe Lieberman when he described Purim as sort of like the Jewish Halloween (really). Voters decide, by what's on our minds, what stories make the news. Never knew you had that much power, did you?
Thank goodness the polls, by which Mr. McManus divines what's on our minds, always get it right.
... and, here, I thought McCain has been making an embarrassing fool of himself, every time he opens his mouth (with or without JoeMentum there to correct him). Forgive the sacrilege, but McCain's finest hour expired when he was released from the Hanoi Hilton.
Here's another bulletin: generally speaking, the press hasn't gotten ANYTHING right since... oh, say, 2000... when it completely missed a breaking-and-entering at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.
"Forgive the sacrilege, but McCain's finest hour expired when he was released from the Hanoi Hilton."
Cheap. Very, very cheap. I wish the guy could distinguish between just and unjust wars, but he's made a career of service to the country. Can we liberal blogger commenteristas at least be the fairer half of our HuffPo-LittleGreenFootballs coin, and give McCain what little credit he is due?
I think we'll get the opportunity to focus on McCain once our nominee has been chosen (i.e. when, hopefully, Hillary bows out gracefully).
The news media picks stories of interest to their sponsor's target and perhaps of public interest as determined by ratings, circulation, etc. that determines their advertising rates. Thus the cheaper it is to produce a story that results in ratings the better, making run-away brides and Paris Hilton irresistible, and stories their sponsors may not like are vetted to be more in the public interest, than contrary to their sponsors.
So when a newsman tells us the McCain gaff wasn't on our minds he probably means Spitzer's sexcapades were getting better ratings.
Duh.
Suleiman Abu Ghaith, once a spokesman for bin Laden, is believed to be living Iran. Gaith and other former al-Qaida leaders, fled to Iran after the U.S. military invaded Afghanistan in the fall of 2001.
They are, however, LOVED in pakistan, where OSB himself, along with his leadership and that of the Taliban are living, unthreatened by the likes of John McCain. When Obama suggested that he would go in after them with or with out the dictators permission, he was roundly chastised by McCain, Hillary, and the Bush administration. Shortly thereafter, it was revealed that the Bush administration had sent drones and special forces in to kill al qeada leaders, without Paksistani permission.
McCain is too old and not in control of his temper or faculties (thus the confabs about al qeada, which even LIEBERMAN had to correct him on. He's going senile.
The answer to the bigger question, of why John McCain continues to get a pass by the MSM, seems obvious, and I'm a bit surprised not to see more written about this. Does anyone really believe that John McCain misspoke? He repeated his assertion many times, not just once. He's a senior senator with decades of government and military experience. Are we really expected to believe that he all of sudden forgot? That he had a Reagan moment? That he's a doddering old man? Because I'm not buying that. I don't support John McCain, but I do believe that he still has his faculties, and I think he knows exactly what he's doing. It's called propaganda. He continues to equate Iran and Al-Qaeda, and by repeating it, in exactly the same way George Bush before him equated Iraq and Al-Qaeda, he's laying the ground work for future war. Repeat it, sew a seed, keep repeating it, and soon there'll be enough support for him to invade Iran, or bomb bomb bomb, bomb Iran at the very least. And the MSM is complicit in this. They allow him to disseminate his propaganda, unchecked. Just like they did with Bush in the lead up to Iraq. Expect an editorial by Judy Miller or Bill Kristol sometime soon, espousing the reasons why America needs to battle Iran. Because history is repeating here, in ways that can't be ignored. The MSM isn't some altruistic entity whose purpose is to get information to the people. It's a corporation that functions as the propaganda arm of the government. The government deregulated their industry, and in return, they do the government "favors". I illustrate my point with the crazy story about the release of the latest Bin Laden tape. Apparently Bin Laden is still railing against that Danish cartoon, 2 years after the fact. How convenient that on the 5th anniversary of the failed Iraq invasion, a tape magically appears from Bin Laden, giving talking heads across America the opportunity to utter "Iraq invasion" and "Bin Laden" in the same breath, over and over and over. Kind of like John McCain and his Iran/Al-Qaeda "gaffe"; over and over and over.