Obama's Loyal News Media Gearing Up For Battle In 2012 :: Political News and commentaries

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January 2, 2012

Obama's Loyal News Media Gearing Up For Battle In 2012

If Barack Obama wins in 2012, he will once again ... as was the case for 2008, largely have his news media worshipers.to thank.

Tait Trussell writes at FrontPageMag.Com on December 30th:

Appearing on Dec. 25 Meet the Press, New York Times' columnist Thomas Friedman, full of his usual arrogance and ferver, said he was deeply worried about Obama's prospects for re-election: "I really, really worry about him. Republicans are starved for a candidate ... they think is as smart and mellifluous as the president."

During the 2008 campaign, the network morning shows were cheerleaders for the Democratic field. In 2012, they are sure to be providing far more hostile coverage of various Republicans who are running, while treating Obama's re-election campaign to the same personality-driven coverage that was so helpful to the then-Illinois Senator four years ago.

For instance, NBC News, Dec. 28 hyped Gallop Poll numbers indicating a slim improvement in Obama's approval/disapproval numbers after House Republicans agreed to the payroll tax cut extension compromise, although recently following numbers indicated his approval was sliding backward.

On NBC Nightly News, reporter Kristen Welker first enthusiastically touted the out-dated and more positive number. She failed to inform viewers that Obama's disapproval rating had increased more than the approval rating had fallen.

Excerpts from Barbara Walters' ABC interview with Barack and Michele Obama in the White House, released Dec. 23, was defended by left-wing Media Matters publication as a conservative attack by such publications as the National Journal and the Daily Caller. Why? Because they reported the President had said:

"[D]eep, underneath all the work I do, I think there's a laziness in me."

The portion of the interview released by ABC news did not include the part in which Obama also says, "I'm saying to myself. You know what, you could be doing better, push harder."

Politico's correspondent Ben Smith fearfully is (sic) called this the "next anti-Obama talking point" for Republicans.

The Hill newspaper recently held a poll conducted by Pulse Opinion Research about media bias. The results indicated 46 percent of likely voters felt that the news media favored Democrats. "This figure outstripped by more than two to one the share of the electorate (22 percent) that believed Republicans" were beneficiaries of media bias. ...

Trussell goes on to detail example after example of the national media acting as cheerleaders for Obama and the the Democratic field in 2008, and aptly notes that this time around, they are providing far more hostile coverage of the various Republicans who are running, while treating Obama's re-election campaign to the same personality-driven coverage that was so helpful for him four years ago.

And for those who've been paying attention, it's not just the national news outlets that have been singing the praises of Barack Obama and protecting him from appropriate and well-deserved criticism ... it's the local news outlets as well. Given the degree of such bias, there's good reason for more and more Americans getting their news from alternative media, a fact first noted by Zogby back in 2008 when the pollster reported Americans now prefer getting their news from the Internet and that two-thirds of Americans were dissatisfied with the quality of journalism - believing that traditional journalism is "out of touch."

Perhaps more simply put, the intelligent reader does not want someone filtering news for him as the media has done for years.

The internet dispelled the myth that you are getting "all the news" or even all the news "fit to print." The public now knows their news has been carefully screened and managed to favor one side of the ideological spectrum. Other than liberal arts departments in higher education, there is no area more liberal than the mainstream press.

Information made available by the internet has blown the cover of the mainstream media. Increasingly they are viewed as a partner to the political elite rather than a check and balance. For many, the mainstream media is little more than a public relations firm serving large, statist government.

Here's to there being a hell of a lot more "intelligent" readers in 2012 than there were back in 2007 when so many Americans naively marched to the drums of the liberal mainstream media that spoon-fed them propaganda disguised as news ... else we'll end up giving Barry four more years to takes us to the nanny state he seeks.