The Mainstream Media Attacking Mitt Romney

Mitt Romney should have seen it coming. He should have known that he would be under constant attack from the press. He should have been prepared with a counter-offensive.

As of now, it seems that he was not.

Mainstream media reporters no longer even pretend to be unbiased. They are flexing their muscles and demonstrating their power by running a narrative that magnifies every one of Romney’s faults and minimizes everything that would make Barack Obama look bad.

As Dorothy Rabinowitz describes it, the bias is appalling. You have to wonder about the intelligence of those who allow themselves to be so easily manipulated.

Rabinowitz emphasizes a point that I and may others have made about the media coverage of last week’s events:

The spectacle of those hordes of journalists in single-minded pursuit of the Romney story day after day—days that saw the killing of four Americans, embassies burned and trashed, mobs of the faithful running amok—shouldn't have been surprising either. It's the most dramatic indicator yet that in this election the pack journalism of four years ago is alive, and well, and in full cry again.

But how should Romney deal with the problem?

Rabinowitz offers sage counsel:

Mitt Romney isn't going to have an easy time defeating a president with Mr. Obama's advantages. A friendly press corps surpasses all wealth, sayeth the sages. The governor will stand a far better chance if he takes to heart the lesson of the past week, when he seems to have recognized, at last, that there are issues in addition to the economy—matters like foreign policy, Iran, America's stance in the world—that he must address. In the weeks that remain to this election, he will have to speak to those matters in depth and in unflinching terms that set him apart from his opponent. And he'll have to do it often.

Stay on message, don’t back down, address a wider ranger of issues... those are surely good ideas.

Yet, Rabinowitz and Romney have overlooked another possibility: accept that the mainstream media is working for the Obama campaign and call them out about their bias.

Emulate Newt Gingrich and call out reporters for their lack of journalistic integrity.

While the press is smearing Romney over a leaked video of remarks made in private, why shouldn’t he call out the Los Angeles Times for failing to release a video it has of Barack Obama’s remarks at a dinner for Palestinian activist Rashid Khalidi?

Obviously, Romney does not need to do it very often. Once or twice will be enough.

It’s not as though the media will be so piqued that they will turn against him. They have already declared their hostility.

Romney might think that it looks presidential to stand there politely while the press is hurling brickbats at you. It doesn’t. It looks weak and ineffectual.

If Romney expects to recover any momentum in his campaign he cannot limit his attacks to his opponents. He must also launch a counterattack against Obama’s media brigades.

[Yates Walker makes a similar point at The Daily Caller. While he is telling Romney to let Newt loose on the press, I have argued that the first volley must be fired by the candidate himself.]