Bittergate's Wobbly Legs: Signs of Media Evolution?

The latest post-bitter polls showing an increase in Obama's lead following a weekend full of news networks trashing him about his "bitter" remarks is much more than a surge for Barack Obama; it's also a fundamental repudiation of the nattering nabobs of the media who imagined that the off-the-cuff word choice of Obama could send his campaign into a glorious, headline-grabbing tailspin. Now, it turns out that American voters actually care about the issues rather than who said "cling" or who can bowl well or who can drink working-class alcoholic products in front of a lot of cameras.

Are the media bitter about their declining power in an internet age when we no longer need them to understand a candidate? Do they cling to polls, soundbites, and conventional wisdom as a way to explain their frustrations with their increasing irrelevance?

We the voters are not afraid of electing somebody who might be called an elitist; we're much more afraid of the mess in Iraq and in America caused by all the elitists in the Bush Administration and the silence about it by all of the elitists in the media.

Read John K Wilson's full post here.

Comments

[JohnHa]

(My comment is subjective and thus prone to errors.)

This mirrors my own thoughts on the topic. I have noted certain anomalies in press behaviour that would seem to suggest a concern or irritation with the way the game has changed.

In several cases the press (blogsphere and MSM alike) writes stories that are wrong, or at least off-the-mark, even when there is plenty of documentation to the contrary. This was visible in both the Jeremiah Wright and the Bittergate cases. In both cases, there was damning commentary from press commentators about the effect of these issues on the primaries - AFTER polls and other documentation gave very good indication that no such effect was visible. It gave off an impression that the actual commentators *could not believe* that the press was unable to beat the candidate down.


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[Fabienne]

If the people actually start thinking for themselves instead of listening to the media or political spin, whatever will happen to our corporate-controlled government? Would it actually be possible to have a true democracy?

[ismart]

I am totally agree with you. As the power of media is decresing by internet, they are playing all foul games. American people are much more smarter than these media peoples that they can decide whom they support for.