US Weekly has provided us a visual as to what the media's role is in this election cycle.
In reviewing the ridiculous coverage which translated to leftist hysteria over McCain's veep choice, Sarah Palin, our media "watchdogs" have revealed quite a bit about themselves. The Media Research Center documented quite a bit of the pro-Obama coverage, right down to Christ Matthews' getting a thrill up his leg when Obama speaks.
Shortly after the Palin VP choice was announced by the McCain campaign, what amounted to tabloid rumors began to hit the news wires. First, it was that Palin's Down syndrome child Trig was not Palin's child at all, and that he in fact was born to Palin's 17-year-old daughter. Along with this there followed speculation in terms of allegations that Palin didn't appear pregnant, and that Palin's daughter had been taken out of school due to mono.
After that hit the airwaves and was picked up by media pundits, there came an announcement from the McCain campaign that Palin's 17-year-old daughter, Bristol, in fact is pregnant now, and her intention is to keep the baby and marry the baby's father.
This unraveled the allegations that Sarah Palin had adopted her daughter's Down syndrome child as her own, but the allegations that Trig was not Sarah's were ridiculous even before the McCain campaign made their announcement. The likelihood of a Down syndrome child being born to a young mother like Bristol are statistically very slim, while the likelihood of a Down syndrome child increases with the mother's age.
Most people know this; I can remember learning this as a young child while walking through the grocery store with my mom; she'd point these mothers and their adult children out to me. It was part of her warning that I shouldn't wait to have children, that I should do it while I was young. In fact, my mother had me when she was just 21. Inevitably we would see the Down syndrome child was an adult, and the mother would be over 60. Having a Down syndrome child and keeping it is a tremendous commitment to make, and we should applaud Palin for having made that choice.
In the pictures at McCain Blogette, which is John McCain's daughter Meghan's website, there are pictures that show the McCains on the campaign trail, along with Sarah Palin and the Palin family. You can see clearly how the Palin family interacts with one another; they are a tight-knit, close family. All the recent issues that have come out have simply proven that they're like any other family in our nation today, they've had their troubles.
Article comments
— go to most recent comments1 - Cao
I forgot to mention troopergate!
2 - Zedd
Cao,
The Republicans make a reckless choice for Vice President then dare blame the media for talking about her. How predictable.
As to the bias, that is manufactured. That is just part of the old but slimy Republican strategy. It worked for a while but now its simply stale. It looks like you are naive and don't understand that blaming the media is a calculated strategy to deflect ANY negative attention for politicians.
As a memeber of the public, you should understand that if you blame the media, then there is no one to hold you accountable. You get to go to war for no real reason because the media is too scared because they don't want to seem bias.
Simply because people are in separate parties doesn't mean that THEY ARE THE SAME. Each situation will not be dealt with in the same manner because it is a separate situation. That is how thinking people deal with varying situations. It is dangerous and wreckless to do anything else. We could be presented with Bin Laden himself as a candidate, it doesn't mean that we should run a peice on "Why he loves his wife". The unbiased perspective is an objective view point of every situation it is not an exact story for two different people.
Palin created a buzz when she didn't come out regarding her daughter. Something was fishy and so the story came out all distorted. Palin is new to the public so she will go through the harsh scrutiny. Obama did and has. Adjust and stop whinning.
3 - Condor
"The Republicans make a reckless choice for Vice President then dare blame the media for talking about her. How predictable." - Zedd
Does that statement also apply to the "Great right wind conspiracy" we heard over and over from Hillary?
If reactionism is what you are trying to explain, then it certainly applies to both sides of the aisle. If only political "matters/anti-matters" cancelled each other out, this discussion would be moot. It's marketing of the lowest order, by both sides.
4 - Lisa Solod Warren
Hmmmmm, you mean like the notion that Saddam Hussein was the one that attacked the Twin Towers and therefore we should go into Iraq and bomb the hell out of a country and kill thousands of innocent women and children and make a million people refugees? Like that like that became "truth?" Or that one that we are "winning" this "war?"
5 - Arch Conservative
I'm sure after Palin's performance last night the lib media is now even more furiosly scrambling to come up with lies and slurs to discredit her.
6 - Andy Marsh
The story came out all distorted...
Only to a liberal would the story of a mother bringing a down syndrome baby to term seem fishy. That's just disgusting!
But of course, that's not media bias right? Not waiting until you get the facts straight isn't bias...it's necessary to just get the story out there whether it's right or wrong, right? What a load of crap! People get crucified at BC here for not getting their facts straight, why shouldn't the MSM be held accountable also? You should know that Zedd, I've seen you up on the cross plenty!
Us magazine publishes one cover with the headline, "Why she loves him" about Barry with a picture of Obama and his wife hugging and the next political cover has a picture of Sarah Palin with the headline, "Sex, Lies and Scandal"
Reading the actual article you find out that the lies they speak of are really the smears from the left. You wouldn't know that from the cover, it may be an implied bias, but it sure as hell is a bias!
7 - Lisa Solod Warren
I think lumping Us and People in with say, The New York Times, Time, The Washington Post, NBC News, CNN, and the like and calling them all "media" is disingenuous....
8 - Andy Marsh
Why, just about every person in this country goes to the Supermarket. That means every person in this country sees that disgusting lie on the cover of that magazine.
9 - LittleOrby
Keep it up Media! You'll are showing everyone what jackels, and fools you really are. What a marvelous woman, this Sarah Palin . . .,
10 - Dave Nalle
After last night's speech I fully expect to see the heads of some of our recently arrived leftist Palin bashers to explode. Or maybe their masters will realize it's time to tone the attacks down because they're doing more harm than good.
Lord knows, people like Zedd have lost what little credibility they once had because of their behavior towards Palin.
Dave
11 - Andy Marsh
You know, I haven't been excited about an election in a long time...since Uncle Ronnie, but man, I really like this ticket!
12 - Christopher Rose
Dave, you're in no position at all to criticise people for losing credibility, having lost your own many straw men ago.
As to the subject of media bias, I don't see anything wrong with it. Media prejudice, however, is just as disturbing as it is in individuals...
13 - Joanne Huspek
I don't go to supermarkets; I shop at Sam's Club, so I am not barraged with slick magazine covers at check out stands. I have to admit that there seems to be a definite sway toward Obama. I don't think I can call it an intentional bias. He was the boy du jour, but besides the novelty of his race, he has to come up with more substance for the people to follow.
14 - Arch Conservative
It's now clear that Sarah Palin is destined to do to Barack Obama what Barack Obama did to Hillary Clinton and I'd be lying if I said I wasn't going to enjoy watching every last second.
15 - Mark Schannon
This article & comments are truly amazing, not to mention disturbing and revolting.
What a great country we've become. Who can lie and distort the most? Who can smear and discredit with the great impunity? Who can get so caught up in the hysteria of the moment that every input is twisted and filtered to verify their inherent hysterical biases?
For a while, I was excited about this campaign, but it's already descended below typical political dirt to something truly paranoid, bizarre, and even frightening.
What's being lost is the ability of Americans to talk with one another--any time, about anything, anywhere. Civility, honesty, respect? Forget it.
Congratulations all. Maybe Ruvy's right--we're all on a one-way bus trip to hell.
Bah.
Curmudgeon-At-Large
In Jameson Veritas
16 - Andy Marsh
Should be a fun ride though Mark!
17 - Joanne Huspek
I have to agree with Mark: Ruvy is right. But we've been on that bus to hell for so long now, it feels comfortable to some.
18 - Silas Kain
If most Americans do base their decisions on what they skim on the racks as they stand in supermarket checkout lines, we might as well hang it up. I don't even think the Queen would want us back at this point! What's a floundering republic to do?
19 - Andy Marsh
It's not that most do Silas, it's the fact that SOME do. It's the fact that some will look at that cover and make misguided assumptions...and to think that the editors of that rag didn't know it is just a little out there for me.
20 - Jordan Richardson
I think most American voters base their decisions on image, a "story," or a single issue. In that respect, Silas is pretty accurate when he laments the simplistic ideology of the American voter. That's why Sarah Palin's speech is lauded as fantastic because she got some "good lines in" on Obama and didn't talk too much about her own experience (or lack thereof). Her biggest round of applause arguably came from a line about styrofoam stage props, for God's sake. If that doesn't prove what the Alaska White GOP Crowd was panting for, I don't know what does.
Politicians from both parties play to this, too, but I think there's a hunger coming from younger voters for something more significant.
21 - MARLOWE
I love how the lackeys of the Right continue on with the "leftist" media rant. When 95% of the "media" is owned by MAJOR corporations and increasingly severely controlled by them... Whatever "feeding frenzy" the media had concerning Palin was simply the OTHER side of the coin for corporate media - America's insatiable appetite for fast food NEWS... Any scandal will do - all is fair game because it puts ASSES IN THE SEATS and drives up ratings...
The really TOUGH questions that SHOULD be asked about Palin, for instance her belonging to a Christian "dominionist" church are never mentioned by any news outlet...
The right wing lackeys remind me of some fat old boxer who's gonna try his old tricks from yester-year ONE more time, just to see if they can snooker you... What's sad is Americans, dumbed down by 35 years of relentless Republican slashing of education budgets just might be able to pull it off again...
Marlowe
22 - Dave Nalle
Marlowe, while I see an article on DailyKos which is reprinted all over the place which suggests that the JCC is a 'dominionist' church, I see very little evidence in that article and none at all anywhere else. JCC appears to be a standard, relatively harmless, big-arena pentecostal church. It may look odd to those from the northeast, but it looks just like several of the churches around where I live. I even listened to some of their podcast sermons. They seemed pretty mainstream as pentecostals go. So where's the evidence of a dominionist agenda?
Dave
23 - ctb
What a great example. Use your Down's syndrome child to hide your other child's pregnancy during your VP announcement. Pathetic.
24 - Jordan Richardson
The really TOUGH questions that SHOULD be asked about Palin, for instance her belonging to a Christian "dominionist" church are never mentioned by any news outlet...
No doubt. Let's get beyond the fact that Palin called the Iraq war a "task that is from God" for just a moment and focus on some of her pastoral connections. If we're going to play the Wright Game with Obama, it's only fair.
Take for instance the fact that her Assembly of God pastor from Wasilla (he arrived in 1999, she left the church in 2002) warned that critics of President Bush might be banished to Hell and that people who voted for John Kerry might not gain entry to Heaven. Ed Kalnins, the pastor, said the following:
I'm not going tell you who to vote for, but if you vote for this particular person, I question your salvation. I'm sorry.
Later he added:
I hate criticisms towards the president, because it's like criticisms towards the pastor -- it's almost like, it's not going to get you anywhere, you know, except for hell. That's what it'll get you.
Kalnins has also claimed Jesus Christ as a proponent for war.
And let's not ignore the fact that last month (August 17), Palin's CURRENT church hosted the executive director of Jews for Jesus. Jews for Jesus is the same group the ADL accused of “aggressive proselytizing with a deceptive message: that Jews who accept Jesus as the son of God and their savior remain Jewish.”
25 - Dave Nalle
Research is cool. Turns out that Palin doesn't even attend the 'dominionist' church that the much circulated web article accuses her of attending. She made a speech there several years ago. That's her sum total of involvement. She doesn't even attend church in Juneau, but is a member of the congregation of Wasilla Bible Church in her hometown.
More to come on debunking this bit of smear.
Dave