July 26th 2008
Media Bias #21
Media Bias 2008 will cover pro-Obama media bias all the way up to the election. Items are listed from most recent to oldest; the numbering reflects this and is not a ranking. Send Media Bias 2008 examples via “comments”‘ below, or to email2laer [@] yahoo [dot] com.
21: Bob Herbert: Gaffe Blocker
Obama’s summer road trip was full of gaffes – “Let me be absolutely clear, Israel is a strong friend of Israel” comes to mind (link) – but nevertheless, the common wisdom is that the trip led to a good week for BO and a bad week for McCain.
NYT columnist Bob Herbert couldn’t let that stand; it wasn’t enough that the media had covered Obama’s trip as if covering Caesar’s victorious return to Rome or Armstrong’s first steps on the moon, he had to take this opportunity to kick McCain while he’s down. In the 7/26 NYT, he wrote:
According to this way of thinking, as voters see more of Mr. Obama and become more comfortable with him (assuming no major foul-ups along the way), his chances of getting elected will be enhanced.
Maybe so. But what about the other guy? How much do voters really know about John McCain?
Well, let’s see. There’s this 20-year record that’s just laying out there in the public eye for all to see, including one prior national run at the presidency. But let’s ignore that, shall we?
Instead, he takes off on a rant about “a monumental double standard” in how gaffes are covered, sharing with us some recent McCain gaffes – “the Iraq/Pakistan border” for example – that we all read about, but presumably weren’t covered. Then he launches into tirade #2 (McCain is a military guy who thinks like a military guy) and tirade #3 (McCain’s got a temper, although he cites not one example of McCain’s temper.)
The piece is minimization/maximization bias. He buries deep the trail of gaffes from Afghanistan to England laid down by his preferred candidate, then attacks the candidate he doesn’t like with the same shovel he just used for the burying. Never, never give the GOP candidate time to regroup.
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