Washington Post Fact Checker: http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/fact-checker/post/the-obama-campaigns-misleading-graphic-super-pacs-threaten-fair-election/2012/02/13/gIQAibdoFR_blog.html?tid
Does this make the news? Is this in the mainstream media's headlines? Nope and nope. But Mitt Romney's wife's Cadillacs are?
Here you have the indisputably left-leaning Washington Post calling Obama's ad misleading and yet, it receives virtually no attention.
Does anyone else see a problem here?
Yahoo! has a headline that says "Santorum says separation of church and state isn't absolute," (a position that doesn't sit terribly well with me), and that's fair game... but there are no headlines about our president misleading in his campaign. There is nothing about him potentially lying? <scratches head>
What do you think? Is this just another example of the mainstream media picking and choosing what to headline in order to help Obama? Should this receive more attention? Or is this just not that important? We at The Elephant in the Room think information regardless of platform should always be spread, and every opinion is respected. Is this Washington Post piece one that should just be overlooked?
Please share your thoughts below. Thank you.
It depends on what your definition of "is" is...
ReplyDeleteWhat does it matter? I'm surprised that they didn't insinuate that she might have been chauffered.
ReplyDeleteHuh boss?
DeleteGood morning LME, hope your weekend went well!
ReplyDeleteDifficult to comment on this. A politician making potentially misleading statements in their campaign? Who hasn’t/doesn’t? Not that it makes it any less of a bad thing, but it’s certainly not something particular to Obama.
But if there was a headline on every news site every time a campaign/election ad could be interpreted as misleading, there wouldn’t be any news other than that.
I take more issue with blatant lying or making up facts, which is not the case here. The numbers in his ad were completely accurate; but they can simply be viewed as misleading, which even though I agree with that assessment, is still subjective.
Bringing light to this issue makes more of a statement against our politicians in general than any particular person. So I have to disagree with spotlighting Obama in this without holding everyone else to the same standard.
RKen - good morning!
Delete"But if there was a headline on every news site every time a campaign/election ad could be interpreted as misleading, there wouldn’t be any news other than that." Yes, true. But, my position is, though difficult to quantify, and I know I should have been keeping a count, is that it seems Obama can do no wrong, while nearly every headline (just look at CNN's front page) about Romney is negative. His wife's Cadillacs make the news like this is a horrible thing, but this doesn't.
I bring like to issues with Obama because it seems like no one else is doing it. It seems that every chance the MSM gets they are cutting down a GOP candidate. I don't want the media to win this election for Obama, and, in my opinion, it's definitely heading that way.
I can see what you mean about the GOP getting cut down, and understand (and agree with) your concern in that, but I'm not even sure that is as much to blame for the media as it is to blame on system and the candidates themselves.
DeletePrimaries, whether for Republicans or Democrats, steam up a lot of news stories about the given candidates that tends to overshadow anything else. That part isn’t anything new/abnormal.
Though, this particular set of primaries has been far more vicious than most, but I think that has more to do with the combination of the lack of a strong candidate the GOP can unite behind and the amount of negative advertising candidates are focusing on each other. It’s almost cannibalistic, and is no doubt at the point where it is hurting themselves in the long run.
Can I blame the media completely in taking all the ammo being created and running with it for ratings? Not completely.
I still see a fair share of non-favoring news of Obama in the media despite this, so I don’t quite see the same ‘do-no-wrong-Obama’ image. The last few weeks in particular have had a lot of criticism on both ends of Obama’s proposed budget, his housing plan, and his ‘war on Catholics’ across nearly all news sites. I think it all just depends more on what you focus on.
Perhaps it's a chicken and egg argument :-)
DeleteMany people say "the GOP's candidates aren't that strong..." but I think that's the perception because that's what the media is saying.
I personally think all the GOP candidates that remain are strong. I like their experience ( they can tout that relative to Obama running without that much) and the variety. I think it's a good thing to have these kind of choices. But I think the "they aren't strong" sentiment is more propagated by the MSM than it is by the candidates themselves. Sure, I personally don't like like the in-fighting... that's their fault. But the media seems to be doing everything they can to make them not look strong. I think they are all good in their positions.
As far as the news on Obama, I'd have to respectfully disagree. I haven't seen as much fallout from it. An example of this is how CNN headlined that his switch on the contraceptive issue was a "compromise" though they have run headlines about Romney being a "flip-flopper."
All in all, it is clear Obama has an advantage in the media, and I hope the GOP nominee, whoever it will be, can level the playing field. I do like the debate (it's one that is tough to quantify and back with solid facts), and I hope it continues.
The media will never say anything bad about Obama. He has them in their pockets.
ReplyDelete