Mainstream media performs disservice to Democrats
By Pete Riehm
Mobile Free Press
The past two weeks we have witnessed a literal meltdown of the mainstream media as they pulled out all the stops to discredit the Republican’s fresh face of Governor Sarah Palin. The national media is aghast that this strong, accomplished, and (it just can’t be) conservative woman has stolen the spotlight from their anointed candidate, Senator Barack Obama. Their cacophony of rumors, smears, and half truths revealed not only their desperation but also their utter disconnect from average Americans.
The Democrats are dumbfounded by Governor Palin’s appeal and Senator Obama’s plunge in the polls and even worse the mainstream media is completely confused and apoplectic in trying to explain it. How can this be? Senator Obama is the dazzling charismatic candidate that will bring hope and change to the masses. The media has been touting him as the next JFK with MLK qualities. It is certain he will deliver us into a new age. Why in the world are the dullards in fly over country infatuated with a moose huntin’ mama from Alaska?
From a conservative perspective, it is obvious that America is still (at least for now) a center/right country and as more Americans start tuning into the general election, they are not buying the overheated partisan rhetoric from the primaries. This is where the mainstream media has done a great disservice to the Democrats and even greater disservice to the voters at large.
For over a year, the national media has been breathlessly applauding empty promises of change and extolling the unassailable virtues of Senator Obama and pooh-poohing any earnest attempt to publicly vet the erstwhile Democrat nominee. Their disdain and palpable disgust for Republicans now embodied in Governor Palin belies their utter lack of objectivity.
The announcement of Governor Palin as the VP nominee precipitated an “Enquirer” like feeding frenzy on any lurid tidbit about her, her family, her pets, and anything they could connect to her no matter how tenuous. Where was this aggressive curiosity for any Democrat candidate? We must know more about Governor Palin’s affiliation with the Pentecostal church, but Reverend Wright’s black liberation theology is strictly off limits. Was she ever involved with the Secessionist party? But, Senator Obama’s relationship with a convicted slum lord and an unrepentant domestic terrorist are irrelevant? The media must know and report every aspect of her 17-year-old daughter’s pregnancy, but would not even acknowledge John Edwards’ sordid activities until the “Enquirer” thrust indisputable evidence into the public square.
Drunk on the same Kool-aid, the press led the Democrats into an unwavering belief that Senator Obama’s candidacy would be irresistible and his (their) Presidency inevitable. This abject lack of objectivity and pathological inability to admit their bias has devastated the Democrat nominating process. Their would-be-emperors are certainly naked, but all pretend their liberal nudity to be quite fashionable.
In an election where history and circumstance all point to an easy Democrat victory, they are very busy snatching defeat from the jaws of victory. The distorted view perpetuated by the major networks and newspapers allowed a charlatan like John Edwards to be a serious contender or the supposed coronation of Hillary Clinton simply based on having been married to Bill Clinton. And finally, the Democrats select a candidate who is eerily similar to George McGovern and Michael Dukakis. The media praised and served a false notion only to set up the Democrats for an avoidable loss.
Would the mainstream media afford Democrats the same critical eye they fervently give Republicans, then perhaps accomplished Democrats like New Mexico’s Governor Bill Richardson or former Governor and now Senator Evan Bayh of Indiana could be given serious consideration. Yes, they are moderate in comparison, but either of these men with a liberal VP, like Senators Obama or Clinton would have been more acceptable to average Americans in a general election.
The immediate disservice is to Democrats who now possibly face a demoralizing defeat in what should have been probable victory. The mainstream media is all too eager to attack conservatives and push Republicans to the left, but they offer no such moderating influence on Democrats thereby allowing them to run way out into left field and actually exacerbate the partisan divide. The greater disservice is to the American people who are deprived of a serious and objective forum in deciding the next President.
Make no mistake, Republicans should be overjoyed by this turn of events, but in the longer view, Republicans need a worthy opponent and the voters need viable choices. We get neither when the mainstream media gives the Democrats a pass on virtually every issue; try as they might, they cannot impose their fantasies on average Americans.
(Riehm is a retired U.S. Navy commander and chairman of Mobile GOP.)
