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.
Somebody stole my S...
Can someone please explain to me why a vote against Marxism or socialism or anyone else who is so into Saul Alinsky’s philosophy considered racism?
What Karl Marx said was that if you distributed all the wealth and goods in a culture to everyone, within five years there would be a lower and an upper class.
Man, this was a great ad if people are still talking about it! good grief...I thought it was a one day and out ad.
Keep chipping away McCain!
Maybe Obama will do something good—by showing that blacks have more race hate than whites. He is becoming more desperate—in the end he will have only the race card to play in his bid to gain the White House. I believe he will implode but—we must do all we can to make sure this crypto-Commie does not win.
Accusations of racism is the bludgeon the left is going to use to force socialism on this country. Far seeing people have been predicting this for 143 years, but most of us were too busy to heed them.
Even 44% of AFRICAN AMERICANS believe that Obama comment was racist:
..... be a joke on The Simpsons.
These folks are just making things up as they go along. There’s nothing racist about that commercial. The Obama supporters are losing it.
May MSNBC and CNN have the tiniest possible audience. They’ve earned it.
No, there is no bias in the MSM, none whatsoever. /s
good one
Should the Obamessiah lose (from my lips to gods ear) our straight-arrow media will use the fact as evidence that its coverage was indeed not biased, contrary to the vile accusations of the right. And of course, the nation and the world will have proof positive that the American people are hopelessly racist. Naturally we will be treated to the obligatory demonstrations/rioting in major cities across the land. What better excuse to upgrade a home entertainment center than 24/7 complaints of grossly unfair treatment at the hands of whitey! So count on Olbermann and company to blame white America for its abject failure to right centuries of wrongs by selfishly refusing to permit a Marxist, America-hating, ignorant, unaccomplished, egomaniacal, unqualified empty suit to endanger the nation and its citizens. The self-interested bigots!
Elitist think that mentioning the race of murderers is racist.
They also think reporting facts are racist.
Frankly, I thought all the guys on money were green.
Nobody ever said that, it seems that Berry The Messiah is very unsure of himself to have to make a statement like that. He claimed that he was not playing the race card, so I wonder if the Messiah meant that he did not look like the other Presidents, because he has those goofy ears and dopey smile?
Good point. Lol.
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