Posted on 04/30/2009 12:54:20 PM PDT by Caleb1411
Theres something very curious even laughable about watching the media assemble to offer President Obama a grade after the first 100 days. They werent exactly a team of dispassionate scientists in a lab. They continue to be what theyve been all along -- a rolling gaggle of Obama cheerleaders -- only before it was a campaign and now its an administration. So now theyre assessing whether their awe-inspiring historic candidate still glows with the luster of victory. Hmm...lets see. They applied the luster, they boasted of the luster, and you can bet your bottom dollar theyll continue doing both.
Remember Chris Matthews, and apply his pre-inauguration pledge across the media: I want to do everything I can to make this thing work, this new presidency work.
Three months have made zero difference in the major medias ardor. They were head over heels in love on January 20, and theyre still head over heels in love on April 29. Just as before, Obama is automatically destined for historical greatness: Obamas start has been the most impressive of any president since FDR, crowed Time magazine. One can also say Obama has been the most socialist since FDR.
Time ran a long column of puffery from Joe Klein, who adored Obamas radical change from government-asphyxiating Reaganism and his long view of the sweep of history, as opposed to our quick-fix, sugar-rush, attention-deficit society of the postmodern age. Klein declared, The legislative achievements have been stupendous the $789 stimulus bill, the budget plan that is still being hammered out (and may, ultimately, include the next landmark safety-net program, universal health insurance).
Stupendous. Thats what socialists think. Conservatives call it horrendous. You can quickly see whose side the media favor the multiplication of landmark safety nets of socialism, from the government takeover of health care to the imposition of onerous global-warming taxes.
It doesnt matter to the media if the Democrats impose them with the nuclear option of a reconciliation procedure that requires only 51 votes in the Senate, not 60. Yes, they savaged Bush for even thinking about using it. But it doesnt matter if Obama is a bare-fanged partisan that rams through massive new government intervention with little time for debate. It doesnt matter that no one read the biggest stimulus bill in history before voting on it. Results are all that count.
Republicans barely exist in this narrative, but when they surface, its only so they can be severely beaten. Kleins Obama action movie portrayed our president/hero as leading a triumph of vision over substance, complete with the usual spin that Obama is lucky to have Republican enemies/villains snidely unleashing gimmicks and hissy fits, whose rants seem both ungracious and unhinged.
The long Klein hymn of praise was only the beginning. They paired the four-page column with ten pages of adoring photographs on his historic start, including such supposedly historic photos as Obama plays with a football, Obama congratulates his daughter [Sasha] on her ability to navigate the building, Obama...greets his daughter [Malia] as she talks about her school day, and a photo of an intimate moment of Barack dancing with Michelle as Earth, Wind & Fire serenades them.
You can see their heartfelt investment in Team Obama simply in the effort theyre putting out. Remember Time magazines cover package on Bushs first 100 days in 2001? No. Maybe thats because there wasnt one.
A Media Research Center study of all 852 stories about the Obama administration on ABCs World News, CBS Evening News and NBC Nightly News from January 20 through April 15 found most of the coverage tilted in favor of Obamas liberal agenda, with conservative spokesmen and experts virtually shut out of the debate.
None of the three broadcast networks aired a single story on whether the new presidents economic policies were driving America towards European-style socialism. Not a single network news reporter used the term socialist to describe how his policies are shifting economic authority to the federal government. On only four occasions was the word socialist used on-camera at all all by outside sources.
Network reporters never called Obama or his agenda even liberal. NBC and CBS never used the word, and ABC only aired the term twice, citing Republicans using the word liberal to describe White House policies. On three of these major economic policies his banking bailout, his auto bailout, and his plans for socialized medicine the networks never had a single soundbite from a conservative expert. After 100 days, the media still look more like the presidents advertising team than the peoples watchdog.
For the MSM, it’s been a hundred day orgasm!
the networks never had a single soundbite from a conservative expert. After 100 days, the media still look more like the presidents advertising team than the peoples watchdog.
The reality is that the media is the whack left propaganda arm of the Obama adminstration!....Everyone knows it. Repubics complain about it all the time while demonrats just ignore it!
I have not been able to stomach the news for a very long time!....It’s never on in our house because we know it’s so blatant! They might as well call it, ‘The Evening Biased Left News with Katie Couric’....At least they would be honest.
I stopped watching the major network news and CNN early in the Clinton administration. Can't bear to watch it, either, it's so biased and dishonest. And I always believe their biggest weapon is what they chose to ignore and never even mention.
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