Tuesday, September 18, 2012

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.]

5 comments:

  1. Watchdog CityTM Oaths for Journalists

    At account sign-up, Watchdog City Journalists agree to abide by the following oaths:

    • "I will not steal the work of others by plagiarism. I will not lie, and I will not deal falsely with my audience or the subjects of my reporting. As described more fully, I swear (or affirm) that I will uphold The Watchdog City Journalists Code of Ethics." Read the The Watchdog City Journalists Code of Ethics.

    • "In upholding the Watchdog City Journalists Code of Ethics, I pledge to avoid conflicts of interest, refuse bribes, gifts, favors, fees, free travel and special treatment, and shun political involvement, making campaign donations of any kind, public office and service in community organizations if they compromise journalistic integrity. I agree to avoid secondary employment outside of journalism that may compromise journalistic integrity.

    • "To the extent I am not able to avoid secondary employment outside journalism, I pledge to disclose any potential conflicts of interest to my audience as part of story descriptions and on my online biography. I agree to disclose any current employment and employment for the past 10 years as part of my Watchdog City online resume."

    This describes the oaths Journalists swear to or affirm at sign-up.

    Watchdog CityTM Journalists also agree to support the Watchdog City mission for journalists, which asks journalists to:

    • Seek Truth and the Public Good.
    • Expose Injustice.
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    ReplyDelete
  2. “In times of universal deceit, telling the truth will be a revolutionary act.”

    George Orwell

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  3. JournoList. Look it up. It is a fact. It is real. There's nothing more you need to know. The major media news outlets are a monolith. I don know whether to be disgusted or embarrassed for then.

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  4. In a perverse way this is a good thing. The more the "media" be clowns itself the less others will give it credibility. How many of us look at journalism and the practitioners there of as objective, honest reporters, I used the word loosely, of the news.
    It would seem that the Left no longer has control of the narrative. Sometimes it takes less than a day and the "media" meme is proved a lie or dissembling at the least.
    "Mother Jones" now admits it edited the tape, which was done in Florida which has laws that make this illegal. And it appears, even by some polls, that it might have actually helped Romney. It helped to demonstrate that he is more attuned to the problems and their solution than Obama will ever be. There was sadness in his voice when he spoke of the 47 percent probably because we can do better.
    I have to admit that I can now see that Romney is more of a Conservative than I had believed before now. I have noted a number of individuals have gained a little more respect for him.
    Many a Conservative, like myself, believe that EVERYONE has the capacity to succeed on their own abilities and the government should not be making them dependent upon hand outs. One should get a hand up when needed, this should be at the local level where citizens can be involved with aiding their fellow American, and then those who were given a hand up can be given the honor of becoming the best they can be and just maybe they will pay that forward. Romney needs to stick to his "guns" so to speak and make the most of what the "media" has handed him.
    Again, There is no one who does not have a skill, capability, capacity to do well if the government would just get out of the way. What compassion is there in making someone a slave to the state?

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