The "Liberal Media" Continue To Hammer Obama

[NNN0LHI]

http://mediamatters.org/blog/201206180004

June 18, 2012 10:19 am ET by Eric Boehlert

Not once in the past twelve months has President Obama logged a seven-day stretch where his positive press coverage outweighed the negative, according to Pew Research analysis. And based on recent media trends, that streak is in no danger of being broken as the Beltway press continues to pile on the Democratic president with routinely negative and increasingly misleading coverage, while at the same time giving his Republican rival a pass.

Whether it's in response to the right wing's incessant whining about unfair campaign coverage, or the product of the media's innate desire to create a close, competitive (and marketable) presidential contest to market, the resulting storyline is clear: Obama's faltering!

From a late-May Politico campaign analysis piece ("Obama Stumbles Out of the Gate&quot that read like it had been cribbed from a Karl Rove column the previous week ("Obama's Campaign Is Off to a Rocky Start&quot , to the recent congestion of sound-alike refrains, the "liberal media's" narrative has become set in stone and conservatives must be pleased since it echoes their own anti-Obama message.

There's nothing wrong with chronicling the ups and downs of campaigns. And nobody's suggesting the Obama re-election run hasn't had stumbles. All of them do. (Although note, Obama's Gallup approval rating has remained constant in the high-40s for a few months now, and even climbed to 50 percent last week.) But the feverish, one-sided coverage in recent weeks signals that a clear, GOP-leaning script has been adopted by the Beltway media. And yes, it makes a mockery out of the tired chant of a left-wing newsroom bias.

[monmouth]

1. That's why great posts like this one need to be sent to ALL of the media. Someone, somewhere

needs to get the message. K&R

[rufus dog]

2. I am so tired of this "keeping in close meme"

They do it because they are biased! PERIOD! There was no effort to keep it close working for Gore or Kerry, there is no effort to keep it close for Democratic Senators or Reps. There is only an effort to help Republicans.

[JoePhilly]

9. You keep it close so you can steal it.

BTW, Bush won by 0% and 1.7% in 2000 and 2004 respectively. That's pretty close.

Obama should win in a landslide given his accomplishments. But the corporate media can't have that.

An election in which 2 billion are spent on ads, and then Mitt wins by one vote, is a WIN WIN for the corporate media.

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

4. Convincing the public that this yawner of an election is "close" sells more beer and Fritos.

It's just hype to get viewers to buy more.

[coalition_unwilling]

5. The MSM are pretty much owned, lock, stock and barrel, by

the 1%.

So, while individual reporters and editors may have liberal leanings, there is enough interference and pressure from Boards of Directors via corporate chains of command to ensure that the MSM will do what serves the interests of the 1%. In this case, a Romney presidency would serve the 1%'s interests unquestionably but so does making the election seem like a 'horse race.' Attracts viewers and allows media to charge higher advertising rates.

Marxism 101 (where superstructure ALWAYS reflects and reinforces substructure).

[Uncle Joe]

6. The corporate media's prime directive is the representation of

mega corporate conglomerates and plutocrats, those entities are the corporate media's "clients"

The corporate media; doesn't represent the American People or reflect reality, the corporate media's primary intent is on shaping reality and molding the people for their own self-centered purposes whether that be to please their conglomerate ownership, to satisfy their commercial buying clients or both.

The corporate media's main concern is propaganda first, last and in the middle, and not on enlightening the American People as to truth or the big picture.

Thanks for the thread, NNN0LHI.

[mcmurphy]

12. It(MSM) appers to have done a fairly decent job of dividing the public

into two opposing tribes of nihilists.

[spanone]

7. k&r...

[Dawson Leery]

8. k/r

[stupidicus]

10. no surprise here

it was easy to predict that the so-called "liberal" media would be his worst enemy

[AndyTiedye]

11. It Has Been Like That Ever Since Ronny Raygun Tore Up the Fairness Doctrine

[mcmurphy]

13. And Bubba Clinton gave us the Telecommunication's Act of 1996,

adding insult to injury.

"...the Telecommunications Act of 1996...enabled the handful of corporations :dominating the airwaves to expand their power further. Mergers enabled tighter :control of information...The Latin American writer Eduardo Galeano :commented..."Never have so many been held incommunicado by so few." - Howard Zinn

[Uncle Joe]

15. That was the trade-off with a Republican controlled Congress in order to expand the Internet

to more rural areas and schools.

The democracy empowering Internet is the future but one way, top down, televised media like any beast; is most dangerous when it's wounded.

[freshwest]

26. Thanks, the info is needed for those who weren't around then.

[sulphurdunn]

32. It was the typical

Faustian bargain Democrats make with Republicans (the further concentration of corporate power) with consequences similar to NAFTA and the Financial Services Modernization Act of 1999, also pushed through by Slick Willy.

[Uncle Joe]

33. My central points being

the democracy empowering Internet is the future and the Republicans controlled the Congress.

If anything the Internet at its' best dilutes corporate power moving that dynamic toward the people but there is/was a relatively short term period of fossilized, televised corporate media consolidation.

As for this being a "Faustian bargain" I have two points, in life one isn't required to sell your soul to the devil but in a democracy or democratic republic such as ours there are times when you must compromise with the elected opposition.

Furthermore, the 96 Telecommunications Act obviously wasn't for "personal power" as it temporarily strengthened the status quo against the "Slick Willy" Administration in deference to empowering the people aka; "least among us."

[SidDithers]

14. There's noteriety in attacking the President...

just ask Hamsher, or Greenwald, or Cenk, or Cockburn, or Rothschild and on and on.

Wanna make a name for yourself? Wanna earn your lefty street cred? Throw some flames. Works every time.

Sid

[dionysus]

22. Hamster\Douchewald 2012!

[freshwest]

23. Yep. Helps people take the focus off what they could be doing to change things, too.

[freshwest]

23. dupe

[freshwest]

23. dupity dupe

[Dont call me Shirley]

16. They march in lockstep to nazirove's memo

[Bolo Boffin]

17. Obama's getting Gored. n/t

[KurtNYC]

18. Clinton said "if you listen to the media, everything bad happens because of me and everything good

happens in spite of me" (-not the exact quote)

[hay rick]

19. The price of gas.

When gas was approaching $4/gal a couple months ago, the airwaves were full of stories that suggested that Obama should expect to take the blame for the price at the pump. Now that the price has fallen 75 cents, I look in vain for the stories suggesting that Obama might receive any benefit from the declining prices...

[certainot]

20. for a long time RW radio has been bullying/enabling this bias while blasting "liberal media" BS high

and wide.

the way to fix it is to finally challenge talk radio and expose and ridicule their lies until media feels shamed for feasting at that daily smorgasbord of prechewed talking points. it wont change until then.

[psgibbo]

21. You got that right!

Thank you for confirming what I have been thinking. The other day when the commerce secretary crashed his car CNN was quick to run a headline to start a scandal and then had to back off once they heard about his seizure! Screw them!

[scubadude]

27. All the media has to do is create plausible denyablity for another thrown election.

When exit polls predict an Obama win, but the machine counted "votes" add up to a Romney win, the media will have it covered. The ruse will continue. It is perception that matters. We have seen this done on numerous occasions, and the people are just too preoccupied with making a living to pay attention. When was the last time you heard someone say "both parties are the same"? As long as people don't see through the corporate mind control machine that the media has become, no change will occur. Consider the new increased pressure for the Democrats to conform that the Citizens United decision has created. Ultimately, the Democrats will feed from the same corporate trough or wither up and die.

Scuba


Edited to correct content ommisions and improve message.

[clang1]

29. Disinformation as news

Yeah it's all Mac'Pravda...

[spanone]

30. the same media pounces on him when a negative rmoney ad comes out...in lockstep

[clang1]

31. the same media pounces on him when a negative rmoney ad comes out...in lockstep

Speaking of media I saw some tweets from CNN on Assange and they were saying some drivel like he (Assange) was going to Ecuador because the Dollar is there (this was one of the CNN topics I saw started on Assange today regarding his asylum request), I was like wth? Meanwhile tweets (and Doc) from elsewhere are discussing the Courts in the UK, the true situation, etc. Meanwhile pure drivel from CNN and I'm sure the remainder of the Corp MacPravda's that call themselves media here in America. Why should anything else be any different?

PS LOL 'rmoney' heh heh good one!