Fri, Nov 17, 2006 6:42pm EST
GOP gets a thumpin', and media revive their substance-free, sophomoric taunting ... of Democrats Snip...
Given the magnitude of that victory -- just two years after the media told us that Democrats had become a permanent minority, they won control of both houses of Congress, a majority of governorships, and denied Republicans the pickup of a single congressional district -- we might expect the media to praise the strategic brilliance of the Left, just as they spent much of the past six years lavishing praise on Karl Rove and Ken Mehlman and, basically, everyone who has ever set foot inside the Republican National Committee. (
Media Matters has repeatedly noted, debunked -- and occasionally mocked -- the media's tendency to swoon at the mere mention of Rove; most recently,
Eric Boehlert addressed the topic in his column this week.)
Given the magnitude of the Republicans' loss, we might expect the journalists and pundits who have so mercilessly mocked Democrats as bumblers and fools, the political equivalent of the
Washington Generals, to turn their snide comments and patronizing jokes on the GOP. With Karl Rove apparently
wandering around in a daze, wondering what the hell happened, surely his
spectacularly incompetent reading of the electorate has earned him months, if not years, of ridicule by the likes of Norah O'Donnell, Chris Matthews, and Mark Halperin.
Snip…
It's easy enough to look past the obvious, if unintentional, double standard. After all, if the public isn't well-served by the sort of inane, substance-free mockery and derision to which the media have subjected progressives in recent years, such treatment of conservatives would merely even the score, not necessarily constitute a move toward more responsible treatment of serious issues. So we might see the lack of sophomoric taunting as a positive.
That would be a mistake. The political media aren't becoming more responsible; they're simply continuing to direct their scorn at Democrats and progressives. Just this week, media have hyped purported Democratic
disarray while downplaying or ignoring altogether GOP
infighting; falsely suggested that Nancy Pelosi is as
unpopular as President Bush; asserted that Democrats -- who do not yet actually control Congress and won't until next year -- are "starting to feel some of the pressure" of catching Osama bin Laden
without explaining how Bush and the GOP let him get away; and suggested that Nancy Pelosi, who hasn't even become speaker of the House yet, is already "
damaged goods." Meanwhile, Trent Lott, who has as good a claim on being "damaged goods" as anyone, is the beneficiary of a
media whitewash of his history of associating himself with racist organizations and ideas. Fox News, not typically known for subtlety or for downplaying controversy,
told viewers that Lott "ran into a little bit of difficulty, but now he's making a comeback." Yes, that
unpleasantness about his suggestion that America would be better off had a segregationist been elected president is behind him, and Lott is now ready, we presume, to act as a uniter, not a divider.
Right.
Snip…
Michael Steele, who ran a deeply dishonest campaign, the primary message of which was that he was a
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C7wjJyMDUH0">puppy-loving (we have no reason to doubt this is true)
Democrat (this most certainly is not), is heralded as the most clever of campaigners; a man who ran so masterful a campaign, he must feel like a winner. Even though he lost. By double-digits. That cold, hard reality doesn't stop the likes of
Wolf Blitzer from channeling
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0117802/quotes">Trent Walker ("Who's the big winner here tonight at the casino? Huh? Mikey, that's who. Mikey's the big winner. Mikey wins").
And, of course, there's John McCain. No matter what the outcome, the political media know one thing: It's good news for John McCain. An election in which the voters made quite clear their disapproval for a war McCain has enthusiastically supported is portrayed as good for McCain. McCain wants to send
more troops to Iraq, public support for which is at a meager 17 percent. That's "would you like to go hunting with Dick Cheney?" territory, but CNN's Bill Schneider
announces that McCain's presidential ambitions got a boost from "a midterm where Iraq was a big issue."
more…
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