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The Media's "Obama Remorse"
CBS News ^ | NEW YORK, Nov. 28, 2008 | Jon Friedman

Posted on 11/28/2008 11:58:37 AM PST by lewisglad

I'm starting to feel a little guilty about the media's treatment of President-elect Barack Obama -- and I may not be the only one.

Chalk it up to a phenomenon I'd like to call "Obama-remorse." You know how you feel buyer's remorse after you've spent a lot of dough on some big-ticket item, only to realize that you might have made a mistake? Well, it's going to happen to the president-elect as well.

Perhaps this sort of recognition prompted Washington Post media writer Howard Kurtz to do an incisive piece called "A Giddy Sense of Boosterism" on Nov. 17. As Kurtz noted, the media have tripped over themselves to celebrate and cash in on Obama's victory.

NBC News is preparing a DVD called "Yes, We Can: The Barack Obama Story." ABC and USA Today are racing to publish a book on the election. HBO is readying a documentary on the campaign, too.

As I see it, the media are having second thoughts about their performance over the past year.

First, they gave Sen. Hillary Clinton the cold shoulder and all but rolled out a red carpet for Obama during the Democratic primary season. Perhaps Amy Poehler's eerily spot-on send-up of Clinton on "Saturday Night Live" helped reduce the New York senator to a caricature, making it even easier for the reporters to consign her to a complementary role.

Once Clinton was dispatched, they lavished favorable attention on Obama, as his opponent, Republican Sen. John McCain, was forced to watch from the shadows.

Yes, I'm thrilled that he won the election, underscoring the American ideal that we live in a foreword-thinking democracy, where any man or woman can rise to the highest office in the land. And I'm proud that even Obama's staunchest foes -- particularly the man he defeated, John McCain -- seem to be willing to accept his victory and pledge to help him turn around the economy and cure the nation's other ills.

Adulation Express

But I also feel guilty because I know that the media's Adulation Express -- never to be confused with McCain's old Straight Talk Express -- is going to hit a few speed bumps before it inexorably grinds to a halt.

It's inevitable. Look at what happened to Sarah Palin, McCain's running mate.

When McCain first nominated her, she could do no wrong in the media's eyes. She was hailed for her aw-shucks demeanor, in contrast to the inveterate Beltway sharpies, and her unlikely ascent to such a big job (I suspect that Tina Fey's brilliant impersonation of Palin on "Saturday Night Live" owed as much to Palin's newness as it did to Fey's uncanny ability to look and sound like the governor of Alaska. Most SNL viewers had no frame of reference for Palin, other than her speech at the Republican National Convention, so Fey didn't have to worry about competing with a hardened image of Palin).

It's inevitable, too, that Obama will eventually have his turn under the microscope. When the media start picking apart some of his Cabinet choices or his pronouncements on the state of the economy or his declarations about Iraq, he may be surprised to find that the afterglow of his stunning victory turns sour so fast.

MEDIA WEB QUESTION OF THE WEEK: Have the media treated President-elect Barack Obama too kindly for the past year - and, if so, should that kind of treatment end now that he has won the election?


TOPICS: Editorial; News/Current Events; Politics/Elections; US: New York
KEYWORDS: 2008; 4thestate5thcolumn; bho2008; birthcertificate; enemedia; mediabias; obama; obamatransitionfile; partisanmedia; puppetmedia
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To: bboop

Brokaw, let me say it for you,

America!
punkd Pictures, Images and Photos
Tom Brokaw & Sydney Pictures, Images and Photos


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

Punk'd Pictures, Images and Photos

Thank you Media, for the Fraudulent, One-Sided, Election of 2008
61 posted on 11/28/2008 12:42:32 PM PST by Son House (Mr. Øbama, Your Tax Increases Are Decreasing Job Opportunities)
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To: longtermmemmory

“No matter how you slice it, chris mathews still has a “ I heart obama” bumper sticker on his posterior.”

Or maybe it’s an “Obama was here” poster.


62 posted on 11/28/2008 12:43:53 PM PST by ModelBreaker
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To: Faith
"When McCain first nominated her [Palin], she could do no wrong in the media's eyes"

If that actually happened, the time lapse was less than 30 seconds.

There has got to be some alternate universe these media types inhabit to make a statement such as this one.

I'd like to know where the door to that universe is -- where just by saying something didn't happen, you can alter history, salvage whatever's left of might possibly be called a conscience, and blame everyone but yourself -- as Friedman does -- for the Obama "adulation express," while still being "thrilled that he won the election."

63 posted on 11/28/2008 12:52:20 PM PST by browardchad
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To: lewisglad

Oh please....

The Democrat “mainstream” newsrooms didn’t work their rear-ends off to get their socialist elected only to dump on him after he takes office. Their entire focus for the next four years will be to justify their hard work in getting 0bama elected, and to assure his re-election. Period.

And after he’s gone, they will spin like a top to puff up the steaming pantload’s “legacy”.

This author needs to get real.


64 posted on 11/28/2008 12:55:57 PM PST by Lancey Howard
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To: GBA

Note to Self


65 posted on 11/28/2008 1:00:56 PM PST by GBA
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To: lewisglad

they are experiencing that phase that comes after the Obasm known as Resolution. (or was it Revolution??)


66 posted on 11/28/2008 1:01:08 PM PST by Buckeye McFrog
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To: lewisglad

There is no doubt the MSM were shameful during the primary and election. To try to distance themselves now is too little, too late.

The thing I don’t understand is why did they become shills for Barry? What is in it for them?


67 posted on 11/28/2008 1:02:51 PM PST by berdie
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To: MeanFreePath
...Is there anything these people like to talk about more than themselves?...

Car chases
Natalie Holloway
Caylee Anthony
Brangelina

68 posted on 11/28/2008 1:05:18 PM PST by FReepaholic (Diversity = .45 .357 .223 .38 ...)
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To: lewisglad

Palin “could do no wrong in the medias eyes.” Evidently Jon Friedman was watching a different media coverage of Sarah Palin. The contempt these people have for the intellect of the public is breathtaking. And the crocodile tears they are shedding, hoping to regain some portion of their lost credibility is more a display of humor than remorse. Bill Clinton was the most corrupt individual to ever occupy the White House. Obama has a splendid chance of breaking that record. And rest assured, the reading/viewing public will be treated to little more than administration talking points throughout his reign. Zeig heil, er, that is Hail to the Chief.


69 posted on 11/28/2008 1:07:15 PM PST by Oldpuppymax (AGENDA OF THE LEFT EXPOSED)
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To: Texas Eagle
Yes, I'm thrilled that he won the election, underscoring the American ideal that we live in a foreword-thinking democracy, where any man or woman can rise to the highest office in the land.

Liar. The entire nation saw how the media treated women who ran for office. It was anything but the American ideal.

70 posted on 11/28/2008 1:09:18 PM PST by Neverforget01
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To: Extremely Extreme Extremist
Amen. They never had one kind think to say about Palin, not one! They hated her hair, her clothes, her posture, her speech, her daughters,and most especially her pregnant daughter, her son who they believed Palin should have murdered. No, not one thing did they say or do that was complimentary and 99% of what they said were outright lies. And now they want people to believe they liked her “at first”. They must think all people are idiots or Democrats!
71 posted on 11/28/2008 1:14:43 PM PST by pepperdog (The world has gone crazy.)
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To: RipSawyer

For some reason it always makes me think of the hood ornaments of old.


72 posted on 11/28/2008 1:16:19 PM PST by pepperdog (The world has gone crazy.)
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To: lewisglad

Wait until Hillary outshines the O-child in a crisis and the feminist meme shifts to “we should have elected the woman.” The media will be at war with itself.


73 posted on 11/28/2008 1:18:39 PM PST by NonValueAdded (once you get to really know people, there are always better reasons than [race] for despising them.)
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To: lewisglad

” When McCain first nominated [Sarah Palin], she could do no wrong in the media’s eyes”

Does anyone remember that phase? It seems to me she was nominated on a Friday and by Saturday they were spreading rumors about Trig not being her child, of his being Bristol’s, and about her belonging to a seccesionist party ? Is my memory failing me ?


74 posted on 11/28/2008 1:23:56 PM PST by EDINVA
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To: johniegrad

Actually it is not, and there is no remorse here. They are trying to salvage their now defunct credibility, saying “look, we aren’t in the tank for Obama.” They can do this now when it no longer matters. Screw ‘em.


75 posted on 11/28/2008 1:26:09 PM PST by piytar
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To: top 2 toe red

More like typical media trying to FAKE being objective...


76 posted on 11/28/2008 1:29:00 PM PST by piytar
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To: piytar
How does one pretend to be objective, much less FAKE being objective...when one says, "It is my JOB to make sure this President is successful"...?

Personally, I don't think most of them give a damn about what WE, the PEOPLE think about them as long as they get their liberal views accomplished.

77 posted on 11/28/2008 1:36:10 PM PST by top 2 toe red (Some names I will never, ever dignify with a Capital letter again!)
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To: EDINVA

“Does anyone remember that phase? It seems to me she was nominated on a Friday and by Saturday they were spreading rumors about Trig not being her child, of his being Bristol’s, and about her belonging to a seccesionist party ? Is my memory failing me ?”

Yes, I remember. I was watching it unfold that early Sat morning on a lefty blog. They were referring to an Alaska Daily News article writtern earlier this year that was reporting how Gov Palin didn’t tell certain people about her pregnancy and how she hid it so well. I remember the lefty blog said, “Doesn’t matter if it’s true, just get it out there”.


78 posted on 11/28/2008 1:38:01 PM PST by CaliGirl-R
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To: Texas Eagle
This is to be expected. There’s always a little feeling of a letdown shortly after the festivities that lead to an Obasm.

Yeah, the kind of letdown a person experiences when they discover they have been in bed with a person who has syphilis.

79 posted on 11/28/2008 1:43:12 PM PST by CharacterCounts (1984 was supposed to be a work of fiction, not a how-to manual.)
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To: Bratch

Great descriptive graphic.


80 posted on 11/28/2008 1:44:51 PM PST by MrB (The 0bamanation: Marxism, Infanticide, Appeasement, Depression, Thuggery, and Censorship)
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