Media Annoyed (Isn't it nice to see Democrats and the media blaming each other?)

World ^ | November 16 issue | Tim Graham

[Mr. Mulliner]

Media annoyed

POLITICS | Let it not be said that liberal journalists attack only Republicans: Election postmortems lash Democrats ... for losing

By Tim Graham

In the late days of the 1992 campaign, President George H.W. Bush began using the slogan "Annoy the Media. Elect President Bush." Media stars responded as if media criticism were the last refuge of a loser.

Ten years later, when former Senate majority leader Tom Daschle hit the TV circuit the morning after his party lost control, it was the Democrats who were blaming the media. Perhaps that's because the media were blaming the Democrats. On ABC's Good Morning America, co-host Charlie Gibson laid a litany on Mr. Daschle: "You've got a president with big deficits. You've got an economy in the doldrums. You've got major corporate scandals. You've got a president talking about taking the country to war, and still you couldn't beat him."

When CNN anchor Paula Zahn started this line of questioning, Sen. Daschle lashed out: "Well, we felt we did have the economic plan. We just weren't successful in getting you to cover it." Sen. Daschle must have been forgetting this summer, when declining stock values followed a media frenzy over corporate accounting scandals. When President Bush gave an economic-cheerleading speech in Birmingham on July 15, the cable networks split the screen to show a plummeting Dow Jones index. It might be a good idea for conscientious reporters to jog their memories by checking Sen. Daschle's own website. From July forward, there's no press release that focuses on the national economy. The Democratic National Committee's website also avoided economic jawboning in the last weeks of the campaign.

With the arrival of a new regime, news media stars began warning about the dangers of excessive conservatism—even as they found the Democrats' losses could be blamed on insufficient liberalism. When Ms. Zahn interviewed new Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott, she asked him how the president would handle "the amount of pressure put on him by conservatives and the religious right." Would they endanger the president by insisting that it's "payoff time"? Conservative media critics expect that GOP control of the executive and legislative branches is going to make the media, feeling embattled as the last standing majority power of Democrats, insist on payback time.

[Mr. Mulliner]

Of course the media hates the Republicans as much as or more than ever. But I take some satisfaction in seeing the media and the Democrats play the blame game with each other. Just one more reason to smile.

[davidosborne]

Click here for POST-ELECTION petition to bring back JUDGE Pickering...

David C. Osborne

[thingumbob]

True..... I'm smiling too! This is the only time when I like to see animals eating their own.

[SwinneySwitch]

Who's Paul Azahn?

[Mr. Mulliner]

I've been listening to NPR a bit the past 3 mornings. I usually can only take a tiny bit of their political commentary, but today they managed to have someone on who so completely misinterpreted the results of the election that it was actually entertaining.

[Dems_R_Losers]

Would somebody please tell me where all this "conservative pressure" is coming from? It sure ain't here. Newly elected conservatives owe President Bush, not the other way around! How could any 5-year-old not understand that?

The media are trying to frame the issues in the public's mind so that if Bush comes out with any "conservative" policy proposals in the next two years, they can jump on him as being "pressured by the right wing." Of course, the upshot of that is that after a huge election victory, Bush is supposed to govern like a liberal! How stupid do they think we are?

[Dark Seraph]

Sshhh. Let's smile silently and not let them know we're seeing the irony of it all. o:)

[sheik yerbouty]

They will be screeching for months! It makes for a great show.

[Mr. Mulliner]

Q: How stupid do they think we are?

A: Stupid enough to believe their silly lies

[txhurl]

Here in Austin, where the locals have been covering W forever, with more or less fondness, immediately turned hostile to Republicans. First byline I heard: 'The Republicans win big. But will they be able to get anything done?'

Dolts.

[Pompah]

Oh Man.!! The TV is fun to watch these days. I'm smiling,and
Laughing. My Wife can't belive that she can actually stay in the Family room with me during the evening news shows.
I'm just going to save a ton on movie tickets this winter.
Ha Ha Ha, Hee Hee.

[Darksheare]

My local "newspaper" has an editor named Oliver Mackson.
His whiny diatribe in the Times Herald Record on page three of Wednesday, the 6th is quite a funny read.
Their political psychofancy is interesting, especially on their website and the wording of their articles.
www.recordonline.com
Check out the whining, if they'll let you....

And he wants to bring back the bitter politics of yesteryear ala Dan O'Connell. He even recommends assaulting people for voting Republican, in his second to last paragraph.

[Slyfox]

I had a Sanchez poll watcher on election day here in Dallas. He took a lot of notes, on what I have no idea. I asked him what he was going to do after he finished poll watching and he said he and his wife were heading to Austin for the Sanchez victory celebration. I asked him if he was going to be listening to the radio, just in case he had to turn back home early.

[Darksheare]

http://www.recordonline.com/archive/2002/11/06/omcolumn.htm

omackson@th-record.com

The smoke you smell this morning is from the New York state Democratic Party, which was crashing and burning last night as editors yanked paragraphs out of my claws on deadline.
The Democrats got out-Democrated by Gov. Generous George Pataki. He gave out goodies to unions. He left the Democrats flailing in Hudson River mud. Pataki even out-Marioed the Democrats by getting free political ads on TV, disguised as ads touting New York's virtues.
So now what? I see three choices: 1. Pronounce the Democratic Party dead and partially decomposed. 2. Dig up the late Albany Democratic boss, Dan O'Connell, and have him start smacking around all the alleged Democrats who abandoned Carl McCall for Generous George Pataki.
Or 3. Get Eliot Spitzer to run in 2006.
Spitzer is the attorney general. He's the only sure-thing Democrat holding state office. He's gone after evildoers on Wall Street. He's gone after wrongdoing in the Orange County Sheriff's Office. Like him or not, he gets results. He's high-profile.
I can already hear Dom from Newburgh and some other Republican friends pounding their fists. Stop cheerleading for this Spitzer, they'll say. He's a shameless press hound, parading suspects before the cameras for the sake of his ambition.
To which I respond: Yeah, Eliot Spitzer invented ambition. If a federal prosecutor named Rudy Giuliani won the mayor's office in New York City by perp-walking gangsters and white-collar mopes in front of the cameras, why can't Spitzer cast an eye on the governor's mansion?
Even The New York Times said Spitzer's the Democrats' man in 2006, and they said it on Monday's front page.
But he won't just be a candidate. He'll be equal parts standard-bearer, candidate and political paramedic.
Who else? Andrew Cuomo? Right. The smell of toast is all around him.
McCall again? Classy guy. Helluva resume. Maybe next time, he'll actually run a campaign. Maybe next time, fellow Democrats won't jump ship.
Right. Maybe Ozzy Osbourne will sing with the New York Philharmonic.
For the love of Mario, even Democratic mayors in Democratic strongholds like Albany and Buffalo endorsed Pataki.
"Let me tell you something: There are a lot of Democrats who forgot they're Democrats," said Goshen's Pat O'Dwyer, whose late husband, Paul, was the very model of a New York Dem.
Spitzer's people say he loves being the AG. He said the same thing to a bunch of us here on Mulberry Street last year.
So if Spitzer passes on the governor's race, the Democrats need to dig up the late Dan O'Connell.
This was a guy who knew party discipline. Endorse the wrong candidate?
Fine, the boys'll come by in the morning to paint a "no parking" zone in front of your store. Pimp out the state's airwaves for political messages? In the 1940s, O'Connell ordered civil defense blackouts of Gov. Thomas Dewey's speeches.
The Democrats need a bulletproof guy at the front of the party, or a tough guy firing rhetorical bullets.
O'Connell wouldn't have merely popped off. He'd have smacked some people around. A mayor like Albany's Jerry Jennings, one of the turncoats who endorsed Pataki, would've been greeted bright and early the next morning with a subpoena from the state tax people.
I know that style of politics is dead.
Call the coroner. This morning, New York's Democrats don't look too lively either.

[PolishProud]

I have been watching Fox all day and all I hear is Sniper news. Fox is trying to turn Sniper news into a 24/7 OJDIANECONDITRYDER event. Its the second day after a historical Republican victory and Fox is giving us "who care" coverage of legal infighting over Mohammed and Marvo.

[Reb Raider]

I have noticed that too. C-span 1 has a debate with repub and dem political strategists on now. It's funny listening to dems trying to explain their ethics.

[wayoverontheright]

When CNN anchor Paula Zahn started this line of questioning, Sen. Daschle lashed out: "Well, we felt we did have the economic plan. We just weren't successful in getting you to cover it."

Nope, Tom, it's because too many lies, too much bias finally eradicated the credibility of the main stream media. We have a new dynamic folks! And it's fun watching them try to figure it out.

[fortheDeclaration]

have been watching Fox all day and all I hear is Sniper news. Fox is trying to turn Sniper news into a 24/7 OJDIANECONDITRYDER event. Its the second day after a historical Republican victory and Fox is giving us "who care" coverage of legal infighting over Mohammed and Marvo.

I know what you mean. I was watching for more election followup last night and all I could find was stuff about Iraq and the snipers.

It seems that this historical election had a very short news life.

[coramdeo]

I asked him if he was going to be listening to the radio, just in case he had to turn back home early.

ROFLOL

[meema]

The only election/political news I can find is on both C- SPANs! Both of which I'm taping for later.
Nothing on fox,pmsnbc, cnn...Yesterday they were doing wall to wall Ryder coverage. As if anybody cares about a movie star.
If nobody covers election news, does that mean it never happened??? Sort of like the tree falling in the forest...