The Politico has an article up in which John McCain's campaign is complaining about their press coverage!
Openly frustrated by what they see as an ongoing double standard in the press’s treatment of his campaign, John McCain and his aides have been aggressively denouncing unfavorable stories as “smear jobs” and “scurrilous attacks,” while the candidate himself has launched a series of stinging attacks on Barack Obama.
Well, they are right about one thing: there is a double standard of media coverage...but it benefits John McCain.
Just look at pastors. Obama got weeks of bad press over Wright, while John McCain got a whisper about Hagee. While Barack Obama was held personally responsible for everything said at his former church, it's no big deal that John McCain actively sought out the support of pastors who blame 9/11 on gays, trash Catholicism and Islam alike, and praise Adolf Hitler.
Just look at the coverage of shady associates. While the media has covered the Rezko story on and on and on, John McCain gets to play reformer on TV despite the fact that K street is running his campaign or that he was a part of the Keating 5! When the New York Times dared to bring up his association with Vicki Iseman, the media responded to by taking the part of the story easiest to question, the issue of a romantic relationship, and using its lack of proof as a pretext to dismiss the broader point of the article that McCain is in bed with lobbyists even if he isn't in bed with one in particular. With John McCain the media standard is guilt beyond a reasonable doubt. With Barack Obama the standard is guilty (by association) until proven innocent.
Just look at the coverage of the candidates' wives. Michelle Obama is considered fair game by the media for attack and everything she says is parsed and distorted. On the other hand, Cindy McCain gets a pass for her finances, her conflicts-of-interest, her husband-stealing, her drug use, etc.
And then there is the matter of sexism. Barack Obama gets crucified for saying "you're likable enough" at a debate. On the other hand, John McCain is allowed to call his wife a c*nt and trollop in front of several reporters and the media hushes it up. When a Democrat engages in infidelity it's big news...look at Bill Clinton or David Patterson. When John McCain has multiple affairs during his first marriage, it's hushed up. How many low-information voters know that John McCain traded his first wife in for a much younger and richer and politically connected one who he married one month after divorcing the first one? Those Arizona political contacts he gained from his marriage are what allowed him to seek elective office in the state and make his rise in politics. Would the media hush this up if John McCain were a Democrat?
Say Michelle Obama had met and married Barack the same way that Cindy McCain met and married John....they would be calling Michelle Obama a slut and the biggest threat to the institution of marriage since gay people. John McCain isn't covered like an opportunistic gold digger like John Kerry was for marrying Teresa. If Michelle Obama once had an addiction to prescription drugs like Cindy McCain did, I am sure the whole country would know as well.
I am not saying we should make the campaign about the McCains' personal faults, but how the hell can McCain complain about the media when false rumors about the Obamas' get more press than true dirt of the McCains.' The media's excuse is that the country doesn't know Obama and so it is fair to make the campaign about his dirt, real or imagined, while treating all of McCain's as old news. But the public has short memories and the media is purposely biasing coverage so that voters to get a much rosier image of McCain than while simultaneously caricaturing Obama as much more divisive than reality by playing up the words of associates.
And look from a meta-point-of-view how the media shapes the narratives to help John McCain. Before it was clear John McCain was going to win the nomination, the media kept saying that illegal immigration was going to be the biggest issue of the campaign. Now that McCain, who supported comprehensive immigration reform, has won the GOP nomination the media doesn't seem to want to talk about it anymore. I think the media is shaping its narratives so as not to remind paleo-conservatives why they don't like McCain. Instead, the media is focusing on race so to stoke racial division to help rally those same conservatives to John McCain's side. They were all set to make Hispanics the scapegoats...now its going to be Blacks....how convenient.
But never, mind, let's all cry a tear with Charlie Black about how the media is being so unfair to John McCain.
Wahhhhhhhh. Boo Hoo!
Here's the McCain strategy:
Hold BBQ's for the Press. Make sure to let them know that you won't stand in the way of consolodating the media into the hands of a few corporate oligarchs.
Ignore the preponderance of McCain's favorable media coverage and focus on one or two mildly critical articles that hardly reverberate though the media echo chamber and are never heard by most low-information swing voters.
Complain about a (fictional) "liberal" media over and over as a manufactured foil and get your lackies in the corporate media to repeat the meme that they are being unfair to you so as to whip up the dittohead resentment vote
Sit back and eat the sprinkled donuts the AP serves you as the national media cynically and dishonestly manufactures false memes that Obama is media darling while John McCain is media victim.
You know what this is like, folks?
John McCain complaining about the media is like people in Hawaii complaining about the weather. And this is the appropriate response:
