Jay Rosen asked an interesting question the other day about whether the press even has the tools to challenge the Romney campaign’s consistent lying, which he calls a “post-truth” strategy. This little headline from the Post, and the fairly useless campaign coverage that accompanies it, with fair and balanced quotes from both sides, answers that question pretty handily: “No”. All that happened this week, if you read this story, is that a set of accusations was made by each campaign.
You can’t call out a consistent liar when you treat reporters like some kind of combination of measurement device and delicate flower. A reporter that can only tell you that the campaign is intensifying, and who wilts when it gets too “negative”, doesn’t have what it takes to deal with the concealment, mendacity and audacity of the Romney campaign.
the Conster
The press can’t ignore those Obama ads though – the O Team will make sure that if the press can’t do its job, the ads will. It’s a win win for Obama either way, because until Romney completely and satisfactorily answers the simple questions THAT ARE AT THE HEART OF HIS RATIONALE FOR RUNNING FOR PRESIDENT, Romney will be put on defense, whining. Nobody wants a shifty whiner for President.
c u n d gulag
The 6 corporations who own most of the news and information mediums in this country, want and need this to be a close race until Election Day.
There are billions of dollars in advertizing out there – from the campaign, from individual wealthy people, from corporations, and from Super PAC’s.
They will make sure that their reporters and pundit’s tow the line – or else, they’ll join the rest of poor unemployed schmucks.
Roger Moore
I don’t think it’s the reporters who are delicate flowers. It’s the editors who don’t want to deal with angry candidates shouting at them for daring to use the “L” word. If editors show the kind of minimal backbone the Washington Post and Boston Globe did when they refused to back down to Romney, you’ll see a lot more independent reporting that’s willing to point out when a candidate is lying.
BGinCHI
@Roger Moore: The WaPo, however, with its Kessler, is having it both ways.
They don’t want to miss out on any sweet treasure out there.
BGinCHI
The question here is a simple one:
Does the press now exist as a medium who is looking after its own profits and interests or does it serve a wider, public function?
wrb
Today’s Obama ad featuring Romney singing in a wavery processed voice
is deadly.
Pray that Romney demands and apology.
Then pray that the Obama campaign makes an ad in which they’ve mussed Mitt’s hair in Photoshop.
And Mitt tearfully demands another apology while stamping his little feets.
ant
So Mitt has claimed that he wasn’t involved with Bain for a few years back about 10 years ago.
Can someone tell me why this matters again? What did Bain do those years that’s so damning compared to the years before?
Has any media addressed this at all?
Spaghetti Lee
What I wonder about headlines like this one, where the writer gets the vapors and clucks their tongue at the first hint of mean words, is a) what exactly do they propose we do different, and b) what “golden age” of decency in American politics are they even looking at?
xian
@c u n d gulag: toe the line. stand with their toes right on the line.
BGinCHI
@Spaghetti Lee: It’s like they haven’t even heard of Tracy Flick.
amk
@BGinCHI: Is the second question even a question ?
Linda Featheringill
@ant: #7
Set up a company to facilitate outsourcing to other countries. Invested in Stericycle, with cleaning up from abortions.
Redshift
About to head into the Obama rally in VA! The Romneybus was here honking, and it was pretty pathetic.
Anya
Everything you need to know about the press can be gleaned from this clip between Martin Bashir and Luke Russert. Young Russert is a nepotism hire so he does not have the minimum experience required to be high school reporter. Everything he knows about reporting, he’s learned from watching other reporters, so all he knows is the ‘He Said, She Said’ journalism.
RaflW
Well, as I said in the earlier thread, this is news.
In previous elections, the GOP gets nasty, and the Democrat has a sad.
That both sides are fully armed and fighting is kinda shocking. But of course that isn’t what’s being reported. But it is underlying all of this – that a Democrat running for high office isn’t being a softy.
I do think the Obama campaign can make some hay a bit later with Mitt out on a demand-an-apology tour. Another way to take what the Romney campaign thinks is an Obama weakness (hence the repeated stump-speech lying about a global apology tour) and whacking him over the head with it.
amk
@Redshift: mittbot doesn’t learn, does it ?
a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)
@BGinCHI:
Oooh oooh – I know!! Profit, bitchez.
Redshift
@ant: moody of the outsourcing stuff was after ’99, so lying about this is the core of convincing the “fact checkers” that Obama is lying about that.
Also in that period is Bain’s investment in Stericycle, a medical waste company that disposed of the remains of aborted fetuses.
So there’s a danger from both ends, which explains their desperation. Lying about this has been central to their chances from the beginning.
NonyNony
@BGinCHI:
The first, of course.
And contrary to popular opinion (spread by the press, naturally) it has always been that way. There has never been a time when the press was not looking after the profits and the interests of the owners of the media.
The reason why the press is considered “liberal” is that for a span of a few decades during the rise of television and radio the press lived under the rule of the FCC, and the FCC was controlled by the Democratic Party because the Republican Party killed the country with the Great Depression and the Democratic Party won World War II. The interests of the media owners co-incided with sucking up to power, which meant sucking up to the Democratic Party and moderate Republicans.
Anyone who looks at the modern media climate and thinks that there was a Golden Age when the press was truly balanced is living in a fantasy land. The press has ALWAYS been about the interests of the owners of the media. Always.
kindness
It used to be that there were conservatives who held principle above winning. They would criticize the loons. I hate to use them as examples but Goldwater (a loon himself on some Birch levels) and Buckley (a tad comfortable with racism) would openly say stuff we liberals say.
Now days? Not so much. Winning is all that matters. And in that environment the Masters of the Right have killed off the moderates and any actual debate among themselves. The press used to use that to stiffen their spine and say what others say and suggest it might have actual credence. Now? No cover. If they suggest the obvious facts the Masters of the Right will call them biased and use their media minions to Dan Rather them. The press has learned the wrong lessons since Reagan. The Masters know this and use this. It doesn’t hurt that most of the publishers, studio heads, CEOs and network heads are Jr. Officers in the Masters of the Right’s execution of this ‘truthiness’.
We’re stuck with it until we can embarrass the press enough that they have to report actual facts & not just regurgitate a he said she said script.
SBJules
Romney is taking the weekend off at his lake resort according to NPR.
Linda Featheringill
@RaflW: #15
Something like, “I will not apologize for telling the truth!”
Redshift
@Redshift: Argh! ‘Most’, not ‘moody’. Damn auto-correct!
Alt Starkly
Rosen’s piece describes what is symptomatic of all news media that for revenue purposes adopt the conceit that reporters have a unique ability to determine and report truth without consulting their own personal ethos and prejudices. The supreme irony is that these reporters are rarely permitted to divulge the very assumptions that form the basis of their critical processes. As an example, make a list of “objective” reporters whose personal views on evolution, climate change and the ratchet theory of tax cuts are acknowledged publicly.
RaflW
@SBJules: I would imagine he’s holed up with top aides trying to figure out how to regain control of the narrative. I don’t think they can, yet, but they’re probably desperate. And willing to have Mitt on vacation – again, so soon after the 4th – because it’s better than being out on the trail getting rope-a-doped.
Pillsy
The press may not be able to handle it, but it sure looks like the Obama campaign can. They line up a series of attacks on Mitt Romney’s background and character, make sure they mesh with their broader theme that the Republicans exist solely to dick the middle class in the eye on behalf of of a coterie of disgustingly wealthy fuckheads, and then start pumping out the ads. The press. in thrall to the Ghost of David Broder say what they always say: “Democrats claim that Mitt Romney is a soulless automaton hellbent on sending every American job possible to China. Republicans disagree!”
Now, is the press actually doing its job untangling fact from fiction? No, it’s not.
But Barack Obama doesn’t give a shit. By turning Mitt’s record at Bain into a “controversy”, they’ve damaged the rationale for his candidacy pretty goddamn badly as it is. Axelrod and friends took a page out of Karl Rove’s playbook, squeegeed off the slime, and are now using it to give Mitt Romney ten thousand paper cuts.
ChrisNYC
The story of this campaign is not at all in the press accounts because they insist on acting like there is in fact a GOP candidate.
Where is this supposed challenger, Mitt Romney? He’s like some spectre who appears hazily and then lopes off to yet another closed-door fundraiser. Is he even holding campaign events? I have no clue. Not many are on cspan. He doesn’t talk to the press and when he does it’s only for another episode of “My answer is … no answer.” He’s running like a safe Senator. Just doing the fundraising, showing up here and there. So strange.
He’s convinced himself that he doesn’t have to address voters. Crazy? Bad advice? Hugely arrogant? Or does he not understand that a huge number of actual, regular people need to go and vote for him in a mere 3 1/2 months. That his super pacs cannot actually purchase the office like they can an ad blitz.
J.D. Rhoades
Exactly. This is Rove 101: take the theme your opponent is basing his campaign around (“Lt. Kerry reporting for duty!”) and turn it into his liability.
the Conster
@Pillsy:
Barack Obama is the Honey Badger.
YellowJournalism
@NonyNony: Where do you think my name came from? All about selling the papers at all costs. Fuck ethics.
slag
@wrb:
Link.
Also too you are so right. It’s a really good ad.
amk
@Pillsy: At this point, the repubs would be better off fielding that ‘generic republican’ who was always beating barack obama per the fucktard pollsters.
tbunny
If Romney gets elected would he be able to say in 10-20 years that his presidency was just a matter of some missed paperwork and arcane filing rules and pay no attention to his being listed as Chief Executive of America? Maybe he will claim he was actually running a Bill Clinton type global foundation during that time and lived in Carmel?
trollhattan
@SBJules:
Which one? The big lake, the little lake, the small ocean?
NonyNony
@YellowJournalism:
Yeah. Too many liberals that I know get down-in-the-dumps about the state of journalism in the US today. I used to – until I found out just how tragically bad my US History education was. My teachers had me convinced that the period between the end of World War II and Nixon was some kind of “Golden Age” for US governance. That the press was all honest and noble, our government was wonderful and fair and kind, and that liberty and justice was spread throughout the land. Then Nixon got elected and it turned to shit.
I don’t know if more college-level history classes would have helped disabuse me of those notions earlier. I do know that my own personal study into US History that I’ve done as a hobby over the last decade has truly helped me to understand that as shitty as the world is now, it is actually surprisingly NO MORE SHITTY overall than it was in that mythical time my teachers spoke of. It’s just that during that mythical time they were kids, and everything is so much more awesome when you’re a kid than when you’re an adult.
slag
@Pillsy:
This statement isn’t going to be popular, but I want to thank the Occupy groups around the country for doing so much to refocus us on the “disgustingly wealthy fuckheads” of this country, thereby helping to make the campaign’s broader theme even possible. May we have more similar movements that then go on to, as Van Jones says, “occupy the voting booth” as well.
Anya
@RaflW: @Linda Featheringill: There’s an ad for that.
Brian R.
@ant:
So Mitt has claimed that he wasn’t involved with Bain for a few years back about 10 years ago.
Can someone tell me why this matters again? What did Bain do those years that’s so damning compared to the years before?
That was the period in which Bain got really involved in outsourcing.
And they took over a company called Stericycle, which was responsible for disposing of aborted fetuses. You can see why Mittens wouldn’t want responsibility for that one, in light of the doubts the pro-lifers have about his commitment to the cause.
The beauty is that in seeking to dodge those issues, they set Mitt up for a potential felony charge. Nice work, clowns.
Pillsy
@amk:
Tim Pawlenty must cry himself to sleep every night. If he could only have raised a little more money, he could have been the generic Republican that America yearns for!
Linda Featheringill
@Anya:
Very nice. :-)
And quick. Team Obama is like a short order cook. Whatever the situation calls for, they’ll produce an ad for it. Fast.
RSA
@Redshift:
And even without any information about what Bain did from ’99 to ’02, the optics are terrible: Romney’s claiming that he was working full time for the Olympics while doing nothing at all for Bain, and yet was still pulling down a salary at least 250% of the median household income.
It puts Romney’s complaints about voters who want free stuff in a different light.
CardinalRed
@c u n d gulag: this is a big part of the problem
Brian R.
@Linda Featheringill:
I do think the Obama campaign can make some hay a bit later with Mitt out on a demand-an-apology tour.
The best part of this is that Mittens was insisting (falsely) that Obama had been going around the globe “apologizing for America.” Now Mitt’s begging him to apologize, and it’s never going to happen. And Mitt looks weak as shit as a result.
hells littlest angel
There are real journalists like David Corn, and real journalistic institutions like the Boston Globe, and then there are the scavengers that skulk along behind them, looking to eat their leftovers. Once the jackals see that Romney is badly wounded, they’ll be happy to pile on and claim some “scoops” for themselves.
Support real journalism. Keep demanding answers. All this whiny “oh the press is so unfair to us” bullshit accomplishes nothing. There is potential here for Romney to go down hard and take a lot of his rotten party down with him. Never forget that.
CardinalRed
@BGinCHI: the first part “a billion from super pacs” is a big hint.
amk
@Linda Featheringill: They used to do it all the time during the 2008 primaries.
IowaOldLady
@Redshift:
Anyone going to an Obama event needs to go equipped with a poster saying “Honk if you love Obama” and be ready to hold it up when the Romney bus tootles by.
Brian R.
@Pillsy:
But Barack Obama doesn’t give a shit. By turning Mitt’s record at Bain into a “controversy”, they’ve damaged the rationale for his candidacy pretty goddamn badly as it is. Axelrod and friends took a page out of Karl Rove’s playbook, squeegeed off the slime, and are now using it to give Mitt Romney ten thousand paper cuts.
This.
The best case scenario here is that Romney gets into serious fucking trouble. The worst case is that it negates the power of the one thing he was running on.
Pillsy
@slag:
I’ve got no beef with the Occupiers. Sure, their movement was a shambolic, incoherent wreck, but they sure as hell got their message out and gave the Overton Window a solid kick to the left. They accomplished in six months what smart, disciplined, driven political professionals couldn’t do in twenty years.
Brian R.
@slag:
Yeah, that ad is terrific in both tone and content.
amk
@Pillsy: Yes, that whiny little stinker would have been an ideal generic republican candidate.
Brian R.
@Anya:
That ad’s outstanding too.
I’m guessing Bob Shrum hasn’t been allowed within forty miles of the campaign office, then?
Anya
@Linda Featheringill: I was impressed. Can’t wait for Face the Republicans. Stephanie Cutter will be mop the floor with Kevin Madden (Romney advisor who’s not as odious as the rest). I am sure he will push for an apology.
Anya
@Brian R.: I don’t think he’s even allowed to visit Illinois, untill the end of the campaign.
FlipYrWhig
@Pillsy: Fair enough, but I think the whole thing would have been a blip on the radar screen if not for, first, Tahrir Square, and, second, Madison WI. For a brief period the news actually trend-spotted people power the way they usually reserve only for missing blondes and shark attacks.
Calouste
@Pillsy:
There will be a paper the size of a small book somewhere in the Obama campaign headquarters that outlined in painstaking detail the actions that Pawalenty did and did not take with regards to the collapse of the I-35W bridge. Next to a pile of footage about that episode.
CardinalRed
I’ve been reading blogs since 99 and I never thought I’d see the day when TPM and HuffPost was leading the news pack, but I always knew blogs would change the dynamic. Decentralize the news like Napster decentralized the music industry.
slag
@Pillsy: It takes a village, is all I’m saying. In my dreams, everyone on all sides of the leftosphere would keep that basic point in the forefront of their minds at all times. Both when passing blame on the O team and when praising it.
Roger Moore
@ant:
I want you to listen to me. I’m going to say this again: I did not have
sexualbusiness relations with thatwomancompany,Miss LewinskyBain Capital. I never told anybody to lie, not a single time; never. These allegations are false.Jay in Oregon
@CardinalRed:
Huffington Post is now a wholly-owned part of AOL, so I dunno how much they’ve “decentralized” anything.
Also, I find it hard to take a news outlet seriously that has a whole section devoted to coverage of “sideboob”.
Cain
@SBJules:
I don’t remember Hillary or Obama taking any vacations when they were campaigning for president. Oh wait, Obama took one vacation to be with his ailing grandmother. (which I am sincerely sorry that she was not able to witness his grandson achieving…)
NonyNony
@Cain:
I doubt this is a “vacation”. This is Mitt getting away from the press and screaming at his political operatives to fix this goddamn mess and fix it right now.
But mostly it’s to get out of the eye of the reporters and let this cool off for a bit. He hopes.
Roger Moore
@NonyNony:
Because he’s incapable of either trusting his staff to deal with it for him or multitask well enough to do it while campaigning on his own message. Meanwhile, Obama seems to be capable of running the country, campaigning on his own message, and coordinating attacks against Romney. Which one of these people is showing real managerial talent?
Pillsy
@slag:
I couldn’t agree more. As another example, I’ve seen quite a few people complaining about how centrist and Villagey Talking Points Memo has gotten over the last couple years, but they’ve really been flogging the hell out of this Bain story. The Globe had to acknowledge them alongside David Corn when they issued their little correction.
NonyNony
@Roger Moore:
Maybe. But I doubt that’s the major reason.
I would bet it’s mostly to sit down and figure out what the story needs to be. How is he going to lie his way out of this one that doesn’t end up with him in bigger trouble down the road. You can see why he wouldn’t want to have pesky reporters around answering new questions while he’s figuring out how to lie his way out of the answers to the old ones, can’t you?
slag
@Pillsy:
I enjoyed that as well. Haven’t noticed anything about TPM’s move into the Village, but I have noticed they’d lost some of their nose for news. Maybe that’s the same thing though. This could be a sign of them getting their nose back. Or it could be that they sometimes play nice as a means of getting in just so that they can rough up the joint later. Dunno.
Cain
@slag:
If you want to report on the village, you’re going to have to smear some of their shit on yourselves so that you can get some scoops. Or you have to find some really aggressive independent reporters that are just plain assholes to get you what you want.