2016 Postmortem
Related: About this forumHow the media outrageously blew the IRS scandal: A full accounting
Almost everything "reported" about the big Obama scandal was wrong, and no one has been held to account (UPDATED)BY ALEX SEITZ-WALD
The first few days of the IRS scandal that would consume Washington for weeks went like this: Conservatives were indignant, the media was outraged, the president had to respond, his allies turned on him and only then, the Treasury Departments inspector general released the actual report that had sparked the whole controversy in that order. Its a fitting microcosm of the entire saga, which has gone from legacy-tarnishing catastrophe to historical footnote in the intervening six weeks, and a textbook example of how the scandal narrative can dominate Washington and cable news even when there is no actual scandal.
While the initial reports about the IRS targeting looked pretty bad, suggesting that agents singled out tax-exempt applications for Tea Party and conservative groups for extra scrutiny, the media badly bungled the controversy when supposedly sober journalists like Bob Woodward and Chuck Todd jumped to conclusions and assumed the worst from day one. Instead of doing more reporting to discover the true nature and context of the IRS targeting, or at least waiting for their colleagues to do some, the supposedly liberal mainstream press let their eagerness to show they could be just as tough on a Democratic White House as a Republican one get ahead of the facts. We expect politicians to stretch reality to fit a narrative, but the press should be better.
And they would have gotten away with it, too, had their narrative had the benefit of being true. But now, almost two months later, we know that in fact the IRS targeted lots of different kinds of groups, not just conservative ones; that the only organizations whose tax-exempt statuses were actually denied were progressive ones; that many of the targeted conservative groups legitimately crossed the line; that the IGs report was limited to only Tea Party groups at congressional Republicans request; and that the White House was in no way involved in the targeting and didnt even know about it until shortly before the public did.
In short, the entire scandal narrative was a fiction. But it had real consequences, effectively derailing Obamas agenda not long after a resounding reelection, costing several people their careers, and distracting and misinforming the public. Its not that nothing went wrong at the IRS, but that the transgression merited nowhere near the media response it earned. But instead of acknowledging its error or correcting the record, the mainstream political press has simply moved on to the next game. Now that the emperor has been revealed to have no clothes, its worth looking back at what went wrong.
full article
http://www.salon.com/2013/07/08/how_the_media_outrageously_blew_the_irs_scandal_a_full_accounting/
Proud Liberal Dem
(24,437 posts)Our leaders should really start demanding that a full and objective investigation occur before anybody loses their careers, livelihoods, etc. I know that, politically, President Obama probably did what he had to do but I wish that he'd be a little less reactive when the right starts in on another one of their scandals or manufactroversies.
tosh
(4,424 posts)that would require us to actually do our JOBS!"
Woodward apperas to be senile, Todd is a tool, 90% of today's "journalists" are actors.
Isn't it past time to OCCUPY THE MEDIA?
tularetom
(23,664 posts)but nobody was worse than Chris Matthews. Within a day of this non story being reported, he was all but predicting Obama's resignation over IRS gate. And he continued to drool spit and sputter over it for at least a week'
It wasn't the Obama administration's most shining moment either. They were apologizing left and right before the facts even came out and their actions added credence to the fake wing nut outrage.
What can we do about it? Stop watching TV news would be a good first step. It really is nothing more than tabloid journalism focused on political figures rather than entertainers. It's too much to expect that the media will rid themselves of hemorroids like Matthews so we need to remove their audience. And finally we should try to convince the Obama administration to stand up to right wing loonies and their allies in the press. They don't seem to have any trouble telling their supporters to get hosed, why can't they do the same to their opponents.
grasswire
(50,130 posts)Is there not a political strategist in the WH who could find out within 24 hours the whole truth of the matter and then shape the response??
Apparently not.
Dawson Leery
(19,348 posts)Whisp
(24,096 posts)The Pretenders.
*spits
'cept O'Donnell, he's on the ball with most stuff and he is not shy to take opposing views of the chatter class there that chatter the same shit all chattering day and evening long.
jenmito
(37,326 posts)giving video proof, and how Maddow and Hayes ALSO covered this, and how Salon was wrong about them.
Cha
(297,655 posts)jenmito
(37,326 posts)Rstrstx
(1,399 posts)Enquiring minds want to know.
The administration may actually be grateful in a way to Snowden, he seems to have distracted the media by offering them something shinier. He also lets O and Co. look tough. The repubs are probably pissed, NSAgate is not a particularly partisan issue no matter how hard Fox may try and spin it as one
Skittles
(153,193 posts)yes INDEED
msanthrope
(37,549 posts)Amonester
(11,541 posts)I alerted one way-over-the-top reply and the jury let it stand.
Then I went to the poster's history and I almost fell off my chair at the aggressive headlines of his previous 4 or 5 hidden posts since he *joined* just four months ago.
Eye-opening. Was that *other* aggressive post left to stand because a majority of the jury *view* me as an *apologist*??
That crappy jury system is FUBAR.