Of American politicians since 1990, TIME picked one Democrat twice versus five Republicans six times for Person of the Year. Will news media in general continue to favor Republicans? You betcha. They've been at it a long time.
Bob Somerby explained on Friday--quoting Paul Krugman's candid assessment--how the SCLM helped to elect Bush and now is set to sway the 2008 election for Repubs. Read on beginning with Krugman:
In Tuesday's Republican presidential debate, Mitt Romney completely misrepresented how we ended up in Iraq. Later, Mike Huckabee mistakenly claimed that it was Ronald Reagan's birthday....Now Bob:
...Folks, this is serious. If early campaign reporting is any guide, the bad media habits that helped install the worst president ever in the White House haven't changed a bit.
You may not remember the presidential debate of Oct. 3, 2000, or how it was covered, but you should. It was one of the worst moments in an election marked by news media failure as serious, in its way, as the later failure to question Bush administration claims about Iraq.
Throughout that debate, George W. Bush made blatantly misleading statements, including some outright lies—for example, when he declared of his tax cut that ''the vast majority of the help goes to the people at the bottom end of the economic ladder.'' That should have told us, right then and there, that he was not a man to be trusted.
But few news reports pointed out the lie. Instead, many news analysts chose to critique the candidates' acting skills. Al Gore was declared the loser because he sighed and rolled his eyes—failing to conceal his justified disgust at Mr. Bush's dishonesty. And that's how Mr. Bush got within chad-and-butterfly range of the presidency.
You won’t read that in your “liberal” journals, where the careful and clever young lads and ladies don’t want to blow future celebrity careers. But in those paragraphs, Krugman is telling a massively important and massively suppressed story. If the public is going to understand modern politics, it has to understand the various parts of this 15-year story. In those paragraphs, Krugman discusses one crucial part of the tale.Click the link for the rest of Bob's insights. And when you get a chance, give Krugman a hat tip (krugman@nytimes.com) for nailing the press on its preferential treatment of the GOP. With a few exceptions, he's standing alone.
Because we’ve discussed this part of the 15-year story ourselves, let’s offer a few small comments about what Krugman has said.
First: Yes! Candidate Bush did “get within chad-and-butterfly range of the presidency” because of the bad media habits Krugman discusses this morning. This very week, we got an e-mail saying that the Bob Herberts of the world didn’t send Bush to the White House; everyone knows that Chief Justice Rehnquist’s Supreme Court did that, our e-mailer said. But Campaign 2000 would never have been reached the Court if the press corps hadn’t misbehaved, for two years, in the manner Krugman describes. Will we ever get the simplest parts of this logic clear in our heads? If we have to wait for help from our “liberal” journals, the answer is clear on that: No.
Folks, if we intend to take back our country, we have to hold media accountable by writing, calling, and complaining. That's what the rightwing has done for decades. We have to, as I mentioned previously, work the refs. So let's give 'em hell for failing to check the facts about what the 2008 GOP candidates have said and will say. Voter opinions are at risk.
POSTSCRIPT: Hey! Look over there, America! It's Paris Hilton. Really big issues facing the nation and your future? Oh, pay no attention. It's only Al Gore.
