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Journalistic Presumptive and Real Journalistic Demise
Guest Column | By Paul M. Weyrich | July 29, 2008
It was an
unusually warm January day in Washington as President-elect Barack Hussein
Obama took the oath of office administered by longtime Supreme Court Justice
John Paul Stevens. Stevens already had administered the oath of office to Vice
President-elect Evan Bayh, of Indiana, who had been picked by Obama because he
was perceived to be a middle-of-the-road man. Recent reporting has revealed that
Bayh shares most of Obama’s radical views on issues. The packed Capitol Plaza waited with eager anticipation as
now President Obama was about to deliver a rhetorical masterpiece, for which he
had become famous.
Have trouble
recalling how Obama had bested Senator John Sidney McCain, III? Was it the
Electoral College which elected Obama or the popular vote or both? No one seems
to remember.
No one seems to
remember because there was no election. It began with the presumptive nominee’s
trip to the Middle East and Europe. The Obama
campaign began referring to the candidate as if he already were President. That,
while politically risky, is certainly understandable. What is not understandable
is how many in the media went along with what the campaign fed them. They began
to treat the Senator from Illinois as if he already had been elected
President. These are media types who believe that perception is reality. If they
can convince the electorate that Senator Obama already is President the election
will become a mere formality. In fact, the election is a sort of tolerated
nuisance in their eyes.
It might have
worked but for the contempt the electorate has for the media. I saw at least
half a dozen interviews on cables over the air networks. In every case voters
said, “He is behaving as if he were already elected.” Most said, “That isn’t
right.” What shocked the reporters, who were stuck hanging around with McCain as
he campaigned in small-town America while their anchors reported
live from Obama’s trip, was how the voters got it. A number identified
themselves as Democrats. One even said he was an Obama supporter. The tracking
polls confirmed what these voters told the reporters. The campaign believed
this trip would give Obama a big bump, putting Senator Obama permanently ahead
in what has been up to now a surprisingly tight race with Senator McCain. It
didn’t turn out that way. In every tracking poll Senator Obama actually lost
support. He had opened a six-point lead at the beginning of the trip. Depending
on which tracking poll one prefers, Obama’s lead decreased to either four, three
or two points. Individual states were even more dramatic. In no state did his
support increase. In some states where he had gone ahead substantially his
support either reversed the trend or is now behind. They include Colorado, Minnesota and
Michigan,
among others.
There are
lessons here for both campaigns and the media. Campaigns must be respectful of
the America voter. Campaigns which put
their candidate ahead of the candidate’s actual position run the risk of
appearing arrogant. It would take something cataclysmic for both Obama and
McCain not to receive their party’s nomination. Yet the voters want to see that
it really happens, in Denver and Minneapolis. Lesson for the
media? If the media has any chance to regain the credibility it has lost with
the American voter it ought to pounce on any campaign which markets its
candidate as if he already were President. The media which goes along with this
planned deception will hammer its own nails in its own coffin. Extremely
partisan voters might like it but the average citizen will be angered by media
partisanship.
You can bet
that the Presidential candidates’ handlers have watched what happened on this
trip and I am willing to wager that they will not repeat this mistake again. The
real question is: did the media learn the lesson of treating an un-nominated
candidate as if he already were elected? I am willing to wager the media has
not. 2008 forever will be remembered as the year real journalism died in the
USA.
Paul Weyrich is Chairman and CEO of the Free Congress Foundation.
© This column is the property of the Free Congress Foundation and may not be reproduced without their permission. For comments and inquiries, contact Phyllis E. Hughes at . Visit our website at http://www.FreeCongress.org.
Guest columns do not necessarily reflect the views of Accuracy in Media or its staff.
6 Comments | Post a Comment
This insightful view really “hits the nailS on the headS!” Thank goodness the US has at least ONE Journalist true to his calling! What a tragic parody of truth the MSM has inflicted upon mankind, and most especially upon “The Land of the Free,” or perhaps better stated, “The Land Which Allows Self-Important self-serving ‘I know everything’ Vacuum Brains dictatorial positions. A pox on all of them, with Paul Weyrich an exception as well as a model to follow!
There are no journalists anymore -only news readers - investigative reporters are extinct - media is controlled by billionaire corporations who only care about the bottom line - noway nobama november....................
Puma x Democrat
The media is and derelict in its duty to properly and publicly vet Senator Obama.
It is complicit in the cover up of anything that reflects poorly on Obama.
Why have an election at all? Why not just coronate him now and get it over with?
“Campaigns must be respectful of the America voter.”
What is most remarkable about the primary is the contempt displayed toward the American voter by Obama and his surrogates, political cronies, and the media. Politicians seem to have lost sight of the fact that we pay their salaries. It is impossible to support the Democratic party or to trust the media, given the tactics used to engineer an Obama nomination.
If you idiots think the “average” voter is willing to allow obama to “take over” the presidency, you’re are dumb as you look. Since I didn’t name “you idiots”, I may or may not have been referring to whoever commented.
There WILL be an election in November, and I’m hoping it’s McCain who will be elected.
July 30 at 9:05 am | #1 | Link
Real journalism died when the communists took over “The New York Times” in the 1920s when one of their reporters went to the former Soviet Union and stated that communism was the way to go. No wonder the American public distrusts the media in the country so much.