Halperin at Politico/USC conf.: 'extreme pro-Obama' press bias (Now he admits it!)

The Politico ^ | November 23, 2008 | Alexander Burns

[publius1]

Media bias was more intense in the 2008 election than in any other national campaign in recent history, Time magazine's Mark Halperin said Friday at the Politico/USC conference on the 2008 election.

"It's the most disgusting failure of people in our business since the Iraq war," Halperin said at a panel of media analysts. "It was extreme bias, extreme pro-Obama coverage."

Halperin, who maintains Time's political site "The Page," cited two New York Times articles as examples of the divergent coverage of the two candidates.

"The example that I use, at the end of the campaign, was the two profiles that The New York Times ran of the potential first ladies," Halperin said. "The story about Cindy McCain was vicious. It looked for every negative thing they could find about her and it case her in an extraordinarily negative light. It didn't talk about her work, for instance, as a mother for her children, and they cherry-picked every negative thing that's ever been written about her."

The story about Michelle Obama, by contrast, was "like a front-page endorsement of what a great person Michelle Obama is," according to Halperin.

The former ABC News political director acknowledged that some of the press coverage was simply reflecting the reality of Obama's presidential campaign.

"You do have to take into account the fact that this was a remarkable candidacy," Halperin said. "There were a lot of good stories. He was new."

New York magazine's John Heilemann, one of Halperin's co-panelists, offered another reason for all the positive press coverage Obama received.

"The biggest bias in the press is towards effectiveness," said Heilemann, who is authoring a book on the 2008 race along with Halperin.

"We love things that are smart."

Because Obama's campaign was generally so well run, he argued, the press tended to applaud even his negative tactics.

"We'll scold you for being negative," Heilemann said, "but if it seems to be working, the tone of your coverage becomes more positive."

Another of Halperin's fellow participants, Los Angeles Times writer Mark Barabak, disagreed more strongly with the Time writer's comments. Still, Halperin's general point met with little resistance

"I think it's incumbent upon people in our business to make sure that we're being fair," he said. "The daily output was the most disparate of any campaign I've ever covered, by far."

[publius1]

I don't even know what to say about this.... other than expletives, and to note that it's continuing: ask Sarah Palin about her press coverage these days from the MSM or such figures as dirty-old-forgiven-man Letterman.

[ari-freedom]

“It’s the most disgusting failure of people in our business since the Iraq war,”

whatever it takes for your guy to win so it was worth it, right?

[ReneeLynn]

But they don’t appear to be very troubled by it. “Oh, yeah we were biased. But that’s because we liked Obama.”.

Well, yes! *eye roll*

[Enchante]

The Mediascum showed once again that they are not worth a sack of donkey dung.....

[JavaJumpy]

http://www.howobamagotelected.com/

[uglybiker]

The story about Michelle Obama, by contrast, was "like a front-page endorsement of what a great person Michelle Obama is," according to Halperin.

I think they were afraid Michelle would show up at their house and beat the sh*t out of them.

[dhs12345]

So much for the objective media.

[ScottinVA]

What is this, CYA time for the drive-bys??? Their guy got elected — they should all be high-fiving each other!

[nathanbedford]

During the campaign, despairing of McCain's inability to penetrate the media bias and get a coherent message across, I suggested that he hire a stable of writers, especially comedy writers, much like those who make Jay Leno funny in order to dominate the news cycle.

I know that the candidates have a stump speech but it seems to me that every airing of the stump speech should have a fresh line or two planted in it which the media cannot avoid picking up. Somehow, Republicans have got to find a way through this bias. A couple of one-liners every day will at least make Leno and Letterman and usually the tag end of the nightly news shows. Since in politics one is either on defense or offense, no candidate at the national level should go anywhere near a microphone or a camera without being fully scripted and armed with an effective soundbite.

There was never any need for Sarah Palin to submit herself to Charles Gibson or to Katie Couric. Properly handled, she could have been presented in a formal speech as an expert on energy. She would have gained gravitas and immunize herself against charges of being naïve and stupid. She could have used some fresh jokes because her stump speech was being carried everywhere every day.

Of all the money spent on campaigns, a couple of million dollars for writers for a few months does not seem to me to be extravagant.

[Son House]

Halperin, Brokaw, let me say it for you,

America!




Our National Security, The Economy, Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness Are No Joke to Most Americans



Thank you Media, for the Fraudulent, one-sided, Election of 2008

[ronnie raygun]

Has everyone noticed the stories across the despicable anti American propaganist news media after Obama’s anointment? Wonderful American Human interest stories coupled with, the wonderful caring thoughtful agenda we will soon be adorned with after January 20, Oh, but of coarse the crisis is worse than we imagined and it might not be repaired in 4 years, it might take 5 years, thats ok because we can all go back to disney world and forget about all our problems, we have the messiah and his disciples who will cater to all our needs. I’m feeling a bit giddy with all this affection and love eminating from our elected officials, aren’t you? I feel good knowing I can go back to watching American Idol and Dancing with the Stars.

[lilylangtree]

MSM did the same thing in 2000 and 2004. MSM won’t even report the controversy over osama’s illegality of running for prez. So what’s new. Someday this will work against MSM because of the distrust people are feeling over biased demoncRATness of MSM’s reporting.

[iopscusa]

The problem was McCain, who never seemed to realize that the media was not one of his ‘my friends’.

[pepsi_junkie]

I don't even know what to say about this....

It's an inoculation. The presstitutes will now come out one by one and decry the horrible bias of this election. Then they will crow in the next that they were fair because they hollered loudly about media bias. Never will they say it was only after the election, just that they were fair in pointing out bias.

And in the next election they'll say "we slipped up in the last election, we should have done more in checking up on Obama. We just can't do that again" and then they'll come down like a ton of bricks on the Republican candidate while giving Obama a pass ("everyone already knows about him...").

It's like 2000 when they gave wall to wall coverage of the democrat convention and then said "we went overboard, we shouldnt let that happen" and cut coverage of the GOP convention significantly. It's in the playbook, show crazy bias towards the dems then use that as a rationale to show crazy bias against the GOP.

[GloriaJane]

Here's what I think of the media American Journalism Died 2008

I wouldn't believe anything they said at this point. They have lost all credibility. Except for FOX, and then I take that with a grain of salt. FOX can tell me, then I'll go find out for myself. The rest of the msm? They can go suck an egg, pee in the wind, what ever. I will never believe them.

[johnny7]

[Dubya-M-DeesWent2SyriaStupid!]

VIDEO:Brokaw/Rose Journalism did not do it's job