The media elite's approach to the general election came into
sharper focus last week, as journalists provided embarrassing
People-magazine style puffery of Barack and Michelle Obama,
even as they scorned conservatives as smear artists waiting to
savage their heroes.
A big front-page profile in Wednesday's New York Times cast
Michelle Obama as a victim of nasty right-wing attacks. "Conservative
columnists accuse her of being unpatriotic and say she simmers with
undigested racial anger," frowned reporters Michael Powell and Jodi
Kantor. "The caricatures of Mrs. Obama as the Angry Black Woman confound
her, friends say. Her own family crosses racial boundaries...and she has
spent much of her adult life trying to address racial resentment."
That morning's Early Show on CBS featured a puffball segment,
"Five Things You Should Know" about Barack Obama. Reporter Jeff Glor
undoubtedly helped millions of voters make up their minds by describing
how "in addition to enjoying basketball and cycling during down time,
Obama loves to play Scrabble." Viewers also learned that "Obama's job as
a teenager was at a Baskin-Robbins, and to this day he does not like ice
cream."
The next morning on Today, NBC's Lee Cowan gushed over both
Obamas: "In victory and in defeat, Michelle Obama had always been there,
dressed as brightly as her husband's smile — determined though, not to
steal the spotlight but to put her signature touch on what's become
their campaign." [Audio/video (0:29):
Windows Media (1.80 MB) and MP3
Audio (134 kB)]On Thursday, after Barack Obama broke a pledge to accept public
funds, CBS Evening News correspondent Dean Reynolds rationalized
Obama’s move, citing the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth as evidence of
past "smears" against Democratic nominees. But Reynolds skipped over the
fact that most of the "unlimited" and "unregulated" independent spending
has so far been committed by liberals.
Then on Friday's Election Center, CNN's Wolf Blitzer promoted
the "warning directly from Barack Obama's lips....that the Republicans
are going to try to play the race card against him in an effort to
simply scare voters." How accommodating of CNN to help Obama pre-smear
his critics as racists, a sign of just how biased this fall's coverage
may be.
For more, see the June
19,
20
and
23 CyberAlerts.
