Partisans in the Media – Today’s Version

Gryphem readers:

I have been trying not to fly off into partisan politics.  Really, I have.  But this situation just begs to be shown for what it is.  We have to stop disinformation and fake outrage.  Sorry. 

If it helps, no matter how bad I think the political left is, I do not hate them.  We are all Americans.  I want to alert my fellow-Americans to the fact that some of us are behaving badly.

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In an attempt to put a positive spin on the failing campaign of President Obama, the illogic of the left-leaning media is on display once again.  I have found the latest example of partisan spin to be, frankly, kind of pathetic.

Immediately following Monday's second presidential debate, the reaction of the public was split.  Democrats tended to think the president had won; Republicans and conservatives tended to think Gov. Romney had won. 

The left-leaning media immediately jumped all over themselves trying to turn a mediocre performance by Obama (which was nevertheless an improvement over his terrible showing in the first debate) into a great victory.  A lot of people were going along with that at first.  But the next day, and the next, the fact-checkers did their work.  It became more and more clear that much of what Obama had said was exaggeration, or intentional misinterpretation, or simply not true.  To put it bluntly, when he wasn’t spinning the story he was spinning a yarn. 

A couple of days later moderator Candy Crowley, who had improperly injected herself into the debate to help the president, apologized and admitted that she had been wrong and Romney had been right about some statements the president had made in the wake of the recent attack in Libya.  That, I think, caused a lot of people to reexamine the debate, its coverage, and the race for president.

Today the Gallup Poll, most independent and reliable of the major polls, says Romney has moved ahead in the court of public opinion to the tune of six percentage points.  This is the first poll in a long time to show a result that is outside the margin of error... and the one clearly on top is the challenger.

The one right-leaning major media outlet, Fox News, celebrates with the headline "Romney by a Touchdown."  Fair enough.

The left-leaning media, on the other hand, just cannot seem to accept that despite their best effort and spin, their man is not ahead.  In the wake of a substantial jump in the polls by Romney, CNN asks "Did Romney undo gains with women?"  Well, CNN, apparently not, since more of them support him today than a week ago.  [Aside:  Never trust a news headline with a question mark at the end.]

CNN also features an opinion piece entitled, "How Obama aced comeback."  Really?  You're characterizing a debate in which the president was caught in falsehoods, a debate followed by a decline in the polls, as a comeback?  If this is an "ace" for Obama, it’s a pretty sad commentary on his lack of ability.  The closest CNN comes to being real about this is another opinion piece entitled, "Not the win Obama needed."  The implication - "still a win' - may be questionalbe... but the statement is yet true.

MSNBC, arguably the most left-leaning media source, seems incapable of finding a face-saving way to address the issue at all.  They feature stories on weather and a new conspiracy theory demonizing American business.  Perhaps it is a positive thing that they are staying away from presidential politics… for the most part… for the moment at least.

NPR, which seems to want to be even-handed even though they just can't manage it sometimes, also has chosen not to address presidential politics directly this morning.  Instead, they feature one story that focuses on the senate race in Maine, and another about climate change.  The sub-headline of the climate change story states that President Obama was "stymied" in his attempt to fix Earth's climate, whereas Gov. Romney "doesn't mention climate change."  No lies there, just innuendo, perhaps even subconsciously presented.

Devoid of anything of substance to criticize, left-wing extremists are trying to arouse outrage over the use of a certain phrase by Gov. Romney.  What has them raging in the streets, according to various media sources?  Gov. Romney stated that when he had been elected Governor of Massachusetts he asked his staff to find more qualified women to consider for senior positions in his administration.  He said they brought him "binders full of women," from which he was able to select several for positions of responsibility.

[Sarcasm Alert]  Don’t you see the seething prejudice in that phrase?  Well, trust us, it's there.  The villain had the audacity… doesn’t "binders full of women" conjure up visions of oppression, of sexual slavery, of masses of women in chains? Obviously, Romney hates women and thinks they should go back to their rightful roles as sex objects, housekeepers and servants.  [End Sarcasm] 

Of course, there really is nothing in this innocuous phrase that is remotely offensive.  This entire "outrage" episode is being faked by a few desperate, angry people and a left-wing media more interested in stoking the fires of hatred than in factual reporting.

Of all the (sometimes) left-leaning media, NPR had the healthiest response.  It was a small item off to the side, a link to a blog post entitled, “Out of the Binder, Into the Kitchen: Working Women and Cooking.”  All-in-all, it was a positive bit using the faux outrage to shine a light on a post that was a little bit humorous, a little bit serious about gender roles and cooking.  Leave it to NPR to find the calm around the storm.  I don’t care if they do sometimes fall off the left side of the wagon, I still like them.

As for the others…  The definition of psychosis (from the American Heritage Dictionary) is, "a severe mental disorder... characterized by deterioration of normal intellectual and social functioning and by partial or complete withdrawal from reality." 

If the shoe fits, wear it.  I, on the other hand, am going to celebrate the “touchdown,” and the hope of a massive turn away from this madness in a bit less than three weeks.

Gryphem