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Republicans declare war on the media at their own peril
WaPo Opinions ^ | 11-2-2015 | Catherine Rampell

Posted on 11/08/2015 8:00:14 AM PST by Sir Napsalot

Republicans want to cut the lamestream media out of the presidential vetting process.

They should be careful what they wish for.

(snip)

Don't be surprised if next we hear of demands for soft-focus cameras, bowls of M&Ms with all the brown ones removed and requirements that questions begin with "if you please, your excellency." .....

And while it's easy to mock some of these demands as petty and prima-donnish, many of them suggest a more insidious strategy: a concerted effort to extricate as much independent journalistic influence from the democratic process as possible and essentially turn the Fourth Estate into a bunch of stenographers.

(snip)

For one, all their whining about mean-spirited media bullying suggests the GOP candidates may not be equipped to handle the rough-and-tumble of a general election campaign, let alone the far more demanding presidency itself, despite tough talk about staring down dictators. A reasonable voter response to such bellyaching might be: If you can't take the heat, get out of the kitchen. Maybe to someplace below 67 degrees.

Secondly, the candidates need the media as much as we in the media need them. .......

(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...


TOPICS: News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: elections; mediabias
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To: Sir Napsalot

Stop it, Catherine. Don’t go all “Meygn Kelly” on us, with the snippy little rejoinders, delivered with a big smile.


41 posted on 11/08/2015 8:56:29 AM PST by lee martell
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To: Sir Napsalot
Yeah, because asking for objectivity is the same as asking for subservience. And everybody knows that the latter is reserved for Democrat candidates.

Trust me, dinosaurs, you need these Republicans a whole lot more than they need you. So be careful what YOU wish for!

42 posted on 11/08/2015 9:05:05 AM PST by IronJack
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To: Henry Hnyellar

Agree.

There are many services that provide streaming. I am surprised that candidates/parties have not used it more. They have been using some social media — Twitter, etc.

It doesn’t even have to start out with all the major wannabes. It could start out with 3 or 4.

For all the things I dislike about Huckabee, I did like the way he interviewed some of the wannabes in 2012. I would see something like that:

Each ‘episode’ gets a topic — foreign affairs, economy, social issues, etc.

Each candidate gets 10 to 15 minutes to present his/her views. IMPARTIAL moderator would direct questions and follow-ups for clarification.

Free-for-all with the candidates discussing among themselves. Moderator to hold down the talking-over each other.

There are certainly other ways to present the forum, too. It just takes some creative thinking. And there is no need for any left-leaning moderators or ‘gotcha’ questions.

The idea of debates should be to give information about/from the candidates to the viewers/voters, not build up moderator(s) so they can get bigger raises at contract time.


43 posted on 11/08/2015 9:06:38 AM PST by TomGuy
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To: Sir Napsalot

At their own peril? Hey, what are the media going to do, start telling lies about them? Fail to cover anything that makes them look good? Spin everything to make them look bad?


44 posted on 11/08/2015 9:08:02 AM PST by JimRed (Excise the cancer before it kills us; feed & water the Tree of Liberty! TERM LIMITS NOW & FOREVER!)
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To: Sir Napsalot; flaglady47; Maine Mariner; pax_et_bonum; mickie; seekthetruth; Bob Ireland; ...
In any war between the enemedia and Republicans/conservatives I'll put my money on the latter because in the long-run WE control the media's income, hah, hah....(if we only knew how to implement this power more effectively, alas).

Leni

45 posted on 11/08/2015 9:14:22 AM PST by MinuteGal
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To: ImJustAnotherOkie

Hahaha...made me smile...


46 posted on 11/08/2015 9:16:34 AM PST by goodnesswins (hey..Wussie Americans....ISIS is coming. Are you ready?FU JK)
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To: Sir Napsalot

At their peril? Whatever happened to the media reporting the facts and leaving their personal spin out of it.


47 posted on 11/08/2015 9:21:52 AM PST by bgill ( CDC site, "we still do not know exactly how people are infected with Ebola")
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To: TTFlyer

Yes...very good analysis...


48 posted on 11/08/2015 9:22:40 AM PST by goodnesswins (hey..Wussie Americans....ISIS is coming. Are you ready?FU JK)
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To: Sir Napsalot
One fundamental point - journalism is not objective.

If journalism were patently objective, it would make sense to condemn Republicans if they criticize journalists, just as it would make sense if Democrats if they criticize journalists.

In reality, of course, journalists criticize Republicans from the left and, if they do criticize a Democrat, they will also do that from the left.

IOW, as far as journalists are concerned, nobody can be too far left to suit them.

Let”s be clear: “left” means a cynical propensity to criticize people who work to a bottom line.

It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena . . . whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds . . .
The exact opposite of TR’s quote above is,
You didn’t build that.
. . . which is cynicism. It is also leftism. And it is also the perspective adopted by (the monopoly known as) journalism.

49 posted on 11/08/2015 9:27:31 AM PST by conservatism_IS_compassion ('Liberalism' is a conspiracy against the public by wire-service journalism.)
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To: Sir Napsalot

Reeks of fear. Their business model is toast. The media is like Putin’s Russia without the balls: They don’t have the cash to sustain a war with conservatives and conservatives are holding all the cards. If we wanted to, we could crush them and there’s nothing they can do about it.

Limbaugh fired the first shots over their bow this week. Megyn Kelly, and that Hispanic reporter, they still smell like a Christmas ham from the roasting they got. They will never recover. Katie Couric is slumming for Google. Dan Rather’s building his own mythology, still bitter from being caught framing W. Brian Williams, he’s the king of the dungheap over at MSNBC.

Fear. Doesn’t Bezos own it right now? He could shut it down five minutes after we decide there are better places to buy our rubber dog doo than Amazon.


50 posted on 11/08/2015 9:28:00 AM PST by RinaseaofDs
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To: Sir Napsalot

Rampell is a northeastern Ivy League Jewish red diaper grandbaby who is of course a super fembot lib

But she is not an old lady

And sure not ugly


51 posted on 11/08/2015 9:33:10 AM PST by wardaddy (I want to destroy the GOPe and beltway elite as much as defeat the Democrats)
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To: Sir Napsalot

The MSM has been conducting combat operations against Republicans and Conservatives for the past 50-years or more.

They are the typical school yard bully, now whining because their victims have punched back!

And the punching is only starting, Presstitutes!


52 posted on 11/08/2015 9:34:32 AM PST by Redleg Duke (The Federal Government is nothing but a welfare program with a dress code!)
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To: Sir Napsalot
The temperature in the venue must be kept below 67 degrees. (Unsurprisingly, given that frigid workplace temperatures are notoriously sexist,
Assuming women have less tolerance for adverse climate conditions than men. Isn't that in and of itself a SEXIST remark? Women who ski in the Olympics and professionally seem to have no problem with "frigid workplace temperatures".
53 posted on 11/08/2015 9:36:13 AM PST by Impala64ssa (You call me an islamophobe like it's a bad thing.)
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To: Sir Napsalot

it is ok to go to war if the enemy is killed


54 posted on 11/08/2015 9:36:24 AM PST by Thibodeaux (this time really is different)
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To: TomGuy

But defend yourself from people who buy that ink and use it exclusively to destroy you, defend yourself and attack them. You may be crushed but you will certainly be crushed if you do not attack.


55 posted on 11/08/2015 9:40:58 AM PST by arthurus (Het is waar. Tutti i libeThe Democrats and their allies the GOPe rali sono feccia.)
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To: Sir Napsalot

Sounds like all the whining is coming form the fourth estate.

If they did their damn jobs there wouldn’t be a problem.


56 posted on 11/08/2015 9:41:39 AM PST by headstamp 2
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To: Sir Napsalot

She wants the Bolsheviks vs the Mensheviks.


57 posted on 11/08/2015 9:42:54 AM PST by Moonman62 (The US has become a government with a country, rather than a country with a government.)
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To: Sir Napsalot; amnestynone; Savage Beast; AmericanInTokyo; Calpublican; ImJustAnotherOkie; ...

John is a decent guy. Each day, he opens a door, steps into the room, and gets a pie in the face from the joker. The people in the room laugh uproariously. And this goes on for decades. One day, Ted steps in the room. He ducks the pie, and instead gives the joker a pie in the face. The whole room is stunned into silence. Then they get angry, and tell Ted that there will be consequences if he gives the joker another pie in the face.


58 posted on 11/08/2015 9:54:11 AM PST by Enterprise ("Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities." Voltaire)
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To: Enterprise
Excellent analogy.

Leni

59 posted on 11/08/2015 9:57:54 AM PST by MinuteGal
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To: aimhigh

THE MEDIA IS LOSING AND LOSING BIG!


60 posted on 11/08/2015 10:07:04 AM PST by GilGil
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