Posted on 08/03/2008 11:07:37 AM PDT by Free ThinkerNY
Exactly how wide is the gulf between elite media opinion and public opinion on matters of politics?
Let’s put it this way, after Sen. Barack Obama falsely accused Sen. John McCain of saying he (Obama) doesn’t look like the other presidents on the currency and has a funny name, Andrea Mitchell on MSNBC, called Obama's "Dollar Bill" statement "self-deprecating":
ANDREA MITCHELL: I have to tell you that the people who heard Barack Obama say what he said Wednesday night—and it's very similar to things he's said in Paris and Berlin and a lot of other stops—it's very self-deprecating. He says "I don't look like other people who have been President of the United States," most people who watched that, I don't know very many people who've watched that, and the people in the audience, the reporters, have never interpreted it, have never inferred from that, that he is making some kind of racial statement, but that's the way the McCain camp says that they took it, and Rick Davis by putting it out there, sure –
Sen. Obama, echoing Mitchell's talking points, himself made the same observation during his Saturday morning press conference:
SEN. BARACK OBAMA: Most of the people here were at this event in Union, Missouri. Almost none of you, maybe none of you, thought that I was making a racially incendiary remark for playing the race card. …
So we’re clear: According to Andrea Mitchell and Sen. Obama himself, no one in the journalist class heard Sen. Obama’s remarks about his looks and name to be a reference to his race.
There can be no doubt that this lopsided view within elite media has colored the coverage. Here’s how CNN’s Wolf Blitzer kicked off a panel discussion last Thursday:
WOLF BLITZER: It doesn't get more poisonous or explosive than to inject this whole issue of race, especially when you have obviously the first African-American on a major ticket. So what's the strategy behind the McCain campaign right now?
Meanwhile, on a Sunday morning panel, Blitzer gave credence to the idea that the McCain campaign’s Britney-Paris-Obama ad was racial in tone:
WOLF BLITZER: All right. Images are very important, and there's been several comments in recent days, our own Donna Brazill made the suggestion here in "The Situation Room" the other day and Bob Herbert a columnist for "New York Times" wrote this, referring to this ad. Referring to the blonde and the Harold Jr. ad when he was running for senator in Tennessee. That's a very serious charge that's been leveled against the McCain campaign right now saying that what the McCain campaign did this week was similar to what Republicans did against Harold Ford Jr. in Tennessee when he was running for the senate …
According to the media consensus, then, Sen. Obama was not playing the race card when he wrongly accused Sen. McCain of commenting on his looks but Sen. McCain’s campaign was playing the race card when he compared Barack Obama to mindless celebrities.
This morning pollster Scott Rasmussen provides for us a snapshot of regular peoples’ views on the controversy. And it isn’t at all in line with the elite media’s view. According to Rasmussen:
Sixty-nine percent (69%) of the nation’s voters say they’ve seen news coverage of the McCain campaign commercial that includes images of Britney Spears and Paris Hilton and suggests that Barack Obama is a celebrity just like them. Of those, just 22% say the ad was racist while 63% say it was not.
However, Obama’s comment that his Republican opponent will try to scare people because Obama does not look like all the other presidents on dollar bills was seen as racist by 53%. Thirty-eight percent (38%) disagree.
To recap: Zero journalists interpreted Sen. Obama’s remarks as racist. Fifty-three percent of the general public did.
I love the smell of desperation in the morning....
No bias here. Move along.
MSNBC and CNN are not news broadcasters.
The media bots exist for the sole purpose of influencing public opinion. Unfortunately for them, they have limited success.
Hum..Andrea Mitchell again. I’d like to talk to the people she talks to. They come in handy. On the Plame woman she said everyone she talks to knew that VP was a spook. Then when pressed to repeat her rumor to show Scooter Libby, or even Richard Armitage, did not blow VP’s cover, Andrea all of a sudden could not recall who all these so called friends were. Long and short of it all is: she is a li-ya!
The campaign ad that needs to be done, doesn’t have Britney or Paris in it. They need the picture of Jimmah Carter in the sweater telling Americans they need to put on sweater and turn their thermostats down juxtaposed with Barry’s remark that Americans need to inflate their tires.
MSNBC and CNN are racist.
That's what O said in Germany, but the dust up here was caused by his statement that "THEY'LL try to scare you and say I'm not like all those presidents on dollar bills, have a funny name, blah..."
It's self deprecating when you confine your statements to "I" statements, but when you start putting words into other people's mouths, it ceases to be self-deprecating and becomes accusatory.
McCain was right to respond in the manner he did.
He used the world "colored." Racist, racist!
Sadly, it's upon such trivialities as spinning this story that the media manufactures its Big Lies. By the time they're through the viewing public will be firmly convinced McCain's engaging in a totally racist campaign.
Of course, comparing himself to Lincoln, Washington etc. would be self deprecating to the messiah.
MSNBC and CNN are full time free campaign commercials for Obama. They are not news organizations.
prior to the current internet , talk radio and fox news, the MSM caused us to lose a war, Cronkite led the charge and the rest followed, they no longer have that ability and it is pissing them off.
Maybe when Obama loses, the media which has invested so heavily in him will begin to get a clue that they are out of touch with reality. Many people are like me, they read the mainstream media to see what the shallow sycophant class professes to be true, exclude it, and look elsewhere for the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth.
Of course it’s racist! It’s racist to compare an unintelligent, no talent Arab-American to a less than intelligent, no talent white girl. But then I suppose calling Paris Hilton a girl is sexist, so never mind.
She evidently doesn't watch much network TV or advertising where white men are usually depicted as fumbling dolts or buffoons.
I would have left Brit-Brit out and used just Paris--like Paris, Obama is famous for being famous. Like Paris, Obama has done nothing of importance.
At least Brit-Brit can sing. I assume.
Millard Fillmore is kind of a funny name; so is Dwight Eisenhower, come to think of it. Then there was Wendell Wilkie and Woodrow Wilson. These white people make up some of the darnedest names!
This is going to leave a mark on the MSM’s credibility.
IMO, McCain gets this 53% of the vote. The only question is, how much more than 53% will he get.
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