Monday, November 11, 2013

Mainsteam Media=Democratic Lapdogs

Some years back the famous libertarian blogger Glenn Reynolds observed (I'm quoting from memory) that if you care about a free press, you should always vote Republican, because the mainstream media is so committed to the Democratic Party they will not do their jobs when a Democratic administration is in power.

The nightmare of Obamacare (following the nightmare of Benghazi and the nightmare of the IRS's deliberate and selective targeting of conservative, pro-life and Tea Party groups) bears this out. You don't need to censor the press, when they are willing to your bidding for free.

The Obamacare disaster, in which millions of Americans have lost their health care insurance as a result of government action, is, in my opinion, one of the biggest stories of our lifetimes. Millions of Americans have had their health insurance cancelled. The number may go as high as 52 million.This should be the lead story every day in every press outlet in the country. Michael Goodwin of the New York Post took the New York Times to task for this on Sunday, November 10:

New York Times' Obama cheerleading harms the nation

"As watchdogs became lapdogs, the presidential bubble grew impenetrable, isolating him from ordinary Americans and the trickle-down pain of his policies.

From the broadcast networks to MSNBC and most large papers, Obama got the benefit of every doubt. The double standards were a daily disgrace so routine, they mostly provoked a shrug instead of outrage.


Mr. Goodwin continues (although I think he is being way to generous to the press--imagine if Obamacare had happened, for instance, under the last President Bush):

"The ObamaCare debacle is the exception that proves the rule.  Wall-to-wall complaints are forcing the media to report that the law’s Web site is a lemon and that its rules are causing millions of people to lose insurance plans they liked.

The mainstream media is acting only because the story is too big to ignore. Had it been mildly skeptical sooner, it could have exposed the law’s destructive rules and prevented the disaster."

The Democratic pollster Patrick Caddell was even harsher on the mainstream media's coverage of the Benghazi disaster, where four Americans, including our Ambassador to Libya, were murdered. Mr. Caddell thinks the bias is specifically for President Obama, rather than for Democrats in general:

Dem Pollster Pat Caddell: MSM is Threatening Future of Country

“First of all, we’ve had 9 days of lies…If a president of either party…had had a terrorist incident and gotten on an airplane [after remarks] and flown off to a fundraiser in Las Vegas, they would have been crucified…it should have been, should have been, the equivalent, for Barack Obama, of George Bush’s “flying over Katrina” moment. But nothing was said at all. Nothing will be said. [...] It is [unacceptable] to specifically decide that you will not tell the American people information they have a right to know. [The MSM] has made themselves the enemy of the American people. It is a threat to the very future of the country; we’ve crossed a new and frightening line on the slippery slope, and it needs to be talked about.”

1 comment:

JohnG said...

Excellent synopsis of current thought. Thanks.

Glenn Reynolds has also proffered that reporters are Democratic operatives with bylines. I thought that to be particularly astute of him.