McCain-Palin's War Against The Media Echoes Failed Strategy Of Bush Sr.
Where have I seen this before -- the crowd taunts of reporters traveling with Sarah Palin, the rage drummed up by the GOP ticket against the news media, the "kill them" attitude typified by the man in the Palin crowd in Clearwater, Fla., who yelled at an African-American TV sound technician: "Sit down, boy!"
It's getting so ugly out there that it's only a matter of moments before "press-bashing" can be taken literally.
I'll tell you where I've seen this "beat the press" tactic before: In the waning days of the flailing 1992 re-election campaign of President George H. W. Bush. In a flashing signal of desperation that could have been read from the next galaxy, Bush and his surrogates spent so much time attacking the media, giving out buttons and bumper stickers saying "Annoy the Media -- Re-Elect Bush," that Republican audiences on the campaign trail were ravening at the sight of the journalists accompanying the patrician-raised Bush 41 to campaign rallies.
One day in Oregon, as I recall, a network crew was set upon and assaulted. Other journalists were shoved. We all were hollered at: "Tell the truth! Tell the truth!" One hothead in Vineland, N.J., seemed within a couple of seconds of taking a swing at me as I walked by, laden down with a computer and other shoulder-mounted gear. A red-faced young man walked into our filing tent in the Pacific Northwest and ranted, glossolalia-like, at the top of his lungs, the spit flying.
The vibes got nastier by the day. Finally, one evening on the road, one journalist made his way to Bush as the president was dining with staffers and beseeched him to tone down the rhetoric before hate led to tragedy.
Read the rest of the post at the author's blog, Politics: The Inquiring Manatee.
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The media creates its own problems. Most of them would rather make, or be, the news, rather than just report it. We see it time and time again. Reporters postulating on the cause of this or that, what the outcome of this or that will be, inserting their own biases so the the outcome of the story fits their preconceived notion of what the bottom line or answer should be. I think they see their mission as changing the world to what their view of how ithe world should be. I would venture to say that the public probably puts the media right at the top of the list, with lawyers of course, that they love to hate.
You blame the victim. Calling some black technician provoked the crowd by being black, I suppose. This is the same mentality that says a woman is raped because she was very good-looking.You ar e wrong in your assessment.
Why call them McCain-Palin? why not just refer to them derogatively as "McPalin" it would be more accurate as a protrayal of their campaign.
Look for the right wing to turn on McCain as his numbers slide. They turned on Dole and Bush I.
Somehow they still stay loyal to W. Go figure. Must be the faith based thing.
I think it speaks volumes when tactics like this are set in motion. It smells of desparation. It signals just how low the Republican party has sunk to in the last decade or so. It explains how some news sources have gotten away with distorting reality to fit their purposes too and conversely, it also helps us to understand how the current administration continued to manipulate the "co-conspiratorial media" to promulgate messages aimed at fostering their agenda.
I hope, no I pray we have matured from the gullible society we were some 7 years ago and that we can see through this political strategy of homegrown terrorism. Aggression and fear mongering have been the drug of choice for too long, let's just say "NO". Not this time!
What do people think about Palin's political future? She can not perform any of her responsibilities as a Woman. Instead of being a loving and caring being (generally what women are) she has become a viscious snake. She is a mother of 5 children with one special needs infant, she is soon going to be a grand mother, I wonder if she ever thinks about them while campaining. She is a failure. I have nothing against women leaders. I grew up in India where they produced one of the strongest woman Prime Minister - Indira Gandhi. However, I don't Indira Gandhi, Margarer Thacher, Golda Meir, Benazir Bhutto, Akino ( Phillipines), Bhandarnayak (Sri Lanka), etc. in Sarah Palin. Hillary Clinton on the other hand is better suited and qualified to be the President.
I believe the media has been to nice to Sarah Palin. She's been very lucky.
http://www.myspace.com/wakeupnowpeople
Unfortunately, even an appeal from reporters to McCain to tone down the rhetoric won't work because he is at heart a small, angry man that knows this is his absolute LAST CHANCE to run for President. He is extremely desperate and willing to go to ANY legnth and sink to ANY level to achieve what he believes he's EARNED by being a POW. He lacked the skills. discipline & desire to become an Admiral like his father & grandfather before him and knows that the only way to carve a historic position for himself in his family's history is to try to surpass them and become POTUS. Now that he knows the tide has turned against him, he's floundering and sinking like the drowning man he is......The more he flails about, the more people stand on the shore watching him drown....
That is it in a nutshell. I couldn't agree more.
Yea, I say boycott the Palin and McCain rallies. Giving them a platform to spew their hate and lies only fuels the fire. I say give 'em what they want....an untelevised rally.
If you want to stop this, don't show up at the rally. Stop filming these people. Isn't incitement to riot a crime? There are remedies for these things, and not giving these people press coverage is one way to do do it. Or is it because the instigators are white republicans that we condone their behavior? If they start a race riot, call it for what it is. If the speaker engages in race-baiting and hate speech, say so. And for goodness sake, stop sending them money; it only further encourages them to further Reichtag burning inflammatory rhetoric.
Good point. Why should the media put themselves in jeapordy? This is another case where right wing radio along with the McCain campaign has incited the GOP boot stomping rabble.
Right wing radio, with its 24/7 GOP campaign ads, has helped every GOP president since Bush I get elected. They were particularly helpful for Bush 11.
It is not working this time and they are very angry. Just listen to Hannity et al and you can see why the crowds at McCain rallies are so angry.
Right wing radio was there for Bush vs Gore before and after the 2000 election, deligitimizing and mocking Gore's challange in Florida.
Right wing radio cheerled the country into the unnecessary war with Iraq. Of course, questioning the patriotism of those who did not support invading Iraq.
America has had its own Goebbel's style propaganda machine for 20 years with the right disproportionately in control of the publically owned radio airwaves. 90% of talk radio is hard right,
while only about 30% of the population could be described as such.
These talk show hosts are about hate mongering. It is little wonder that the MSM is feeling the wrath of their listeners. After all, they have been told for years that the MSM is liberal and out to get them.
yep. the networks should have bailed when they hid palin.
This week, Palin has crossed the line from Populist to Rabble-Rouser.
(Here's a definition of rabble from an online dictionary: 1: a disorganized or disorderly crowd of people : mob 2: the lowest class of people)
McSame.s goose(moose?) is cooked. Palin did him in. What a joke! People please vote on Nov 4th. Not voting is a vote for McBush and SIMPLE Sarah! God Bless America!! We DON'T need them in OUR Whitehouse! Winkin, blinkin and Todd!! Just say NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!
This repub train has wrecked.
We don't need to watch anymore.
There is an answer! If the press feels that they are in danger with these angry crowds, don't show up! If they get no free press coverage, I'll bet it will be just a matter of time before they will settle everyone down!
Stop filming their speeches until they stop the hateful crowds!
Hey icantbelieveher,
Why is anyone surprised that the Press is beginning to get agrivated with the MSM? 90% of MSM stories are positive ror Liberals and negative for Republicans. This is not opinion this has been established by careful analysis of news stories. Sarah Palin can make a minor factual mistake and it receives national attention. Joe Biden can say on national T.V that FDR got on TV in 1929 and gave hope to the American People at the beginning of the depression. Notwithstanding that FDR wasn't president in 1929. Also, there was no TV then. If a Conservative had said this there would be laughter for weeks. This would be worse than Dan Quayle putting an "e" on potato. Biden also said that Dick Cheney had no part with the Legislative branch of government only the
executive Branch. Even after 30 years in the Senate he apparently still doesn't know that the Vicepresident is President of the Senate. I didn't hear of any screams from him( that's right,Howard Dean is the screamer) when Viceppresident Al Gore cast a tie breaking vote that passed a bill supported by the Libetals. When the MSM return to being journalists instead of being Liberal propagandists they will get much more respect.
It must simplify your life to view everything in terms of your narrow agenda ! The true patriots that make up a majority of the Republican and Democrat members of Congress are prevented from doing their jobs by people like you that harbor a grossly bigoted view of the world !
You must be politically and media dyslexic. There is treatment.
Actually, Joe Biden specifically said that the role of the VP in the Senate was to cast a vote in the event of a tie. You're right though about the FDR comment, but surely you can't believe this is equal to the yawning chasm of ignorance Sarah Palin has displayed. And if you have an independent study that shows that "90%" of news stories are biased toward liberals, please do post it.
The Constitution says, "The Vice President of the United States shall be President of the Senate, but shall have no vote, unless they be equally divided." Therefore, he is not part of the Senate since he has no vote except in the case of a tie vote. He has not been elected by the electors of any state to represent them in the Legislative Branch, but has been elected by the citizens of the United States to serve as second in the line of succession in the Executive Branch.
I have a feeling that your idea of a journalist is one who would pass the FOX litmus test.
Give me a break!!! Careful analysis of news stories, by whom????? Did you ever think that much of the news the right wing has brought has been bad, unending war in Iraq, thousands of deaths, trillions of $$$ in national debt, now the global economic meltdown? Not much good news that the right wing has produced so don't expect favorable coverage from anywhere but FOX and talk radio.
I don't understand your first sentence "the Press is beginning to get agrivated with the MSM". Besides the misspelling, it doesn't make sense. I thought the Press was the MSM. Did you go to school at Pat Robertson U or Liberty Baptist?
perfect!
Not giving them press, would not be the best answer. America and Americans, at least those of us who aren't crazy rabid right wing fanatics need to see these things in the light of day. Hidden from others eyes they can continue to foment hate, but we wouldn't know about it and we wouldn't be prepared for what they might do. Their ugly side needs to be exposed to the world. The only thing the Media should do is call it what it really is and stop being bought off by rich conservatives.
It is clear to me that these rallies are put up jobs. The so called rabble rousers have each hurled epithets that were scripted and designed, followed by the notable pause, and then immediately picked up by the press. This Schmidt character who, in his utter stupidity, is orchestrating the demise of the Republican Party. McCain's campaign thrust is to show that American's don't like people of Color, Foreigners, Education, Intelligence and anyone who dares to oppose war. This is contemptuous, fascistic thinking. It is the big lie. The actor who shouted out "Kill him," was paid for by McCain's campaign. The actor who hollered "Terrorist," was also rehearsed and paid. Note the consistency of the one word sound bites and the lies and distortions of the candidates themselves: Palin fatously links Obama with Ayers, a sixties radical who never bombed anything. Obama pals around with terrorists according to this bimbo. We then hear the plaintiff cry "terrorist." The most laughable moment, is when this Palin ditz questions Obama's judgment. Every Republican president has been a clueless puppet. Every Republican VP has been a fool-Agnew, Quayle, Cheney, and the klutz. The GOP has finally and inevitably come to a bad end in the man without a party, John McCain. McCain has the temerity to question Obama's honesty. McCain hasn't had one honest thought or idea in 35 years.
Even in my deepest cynicism I have not gone there. But, God help us, you may be right. How have we come to this?
Great evangelical Christian Sarah Palin is eh ! Inciting hatred and violence ,,hum that must be a new Christian right adage to the bible now .
A while back I read where a waitress in Wasilla said Palin was a racist against indigenous people and blacks and that one day after Obama won the primary Palin came in a sat down with a friend and said ,,so sambo beat the bitch .I wasn't sure that article was true until now after seeing how she is inciting violence and hate against Obama in her rally's I can very well see that statement to be true. She did nothing to quell the violent yelling of terrorist and kill him so it seems to me she has a big problem with Obama's race . The sad thing is there are some sick people out there and what if someone were so worked up after one of these rally's that he actually tried to do something bad to Obama. I for one would hold both McCain and Palin responsible because they know as well as I do that there is a very good chance there could be a sick person in one of the crowds who might act on their threats. To think that these two want to be elected in November when they have shown the world the kind of dispicable people they are, willing to stoop so low just to try and beat Obama.
"Speak softly and do unto others with a big stick."
Yeah, McCain reminds me of Teddy Roosevelt in all his worst excesses, particularly putting his ego above the country (and his own party) to use the "bully pulpit" to incite xenophobia and jingoism to attack attack ATTACK Spain. Only now it's Iran. Or North Korea. Or Syria. Pick your poison.
I fear for our country, and for the next President's life, at the hands of the repulsive scum being incited to act now to keep the White House white. I hope the Secret Service is on their toes and dedicated the next four years, because you know some tool is going to try to get in the history books.
Quest44 is being very kind to say "there is a very good chance there could be a sick person in one of the crowds". Unless one is sick, he would not even be in attendance at a McCain/Palin rally! I haven't observed such cretins since George Corley Wallace was a candidate.
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