Day: 1/9/2008

Obama Capitulates To Fox News

Posted by on January 9, 2008 at 4:03 pm. NO Comments :

On the morning after his second place finish in the New Hampshire primary, Barack Obama apparently feels he needs the solace of a hostile new network to salve his wounds. By appearing on the infantile Fox & Friends morning show, Obama has gilded Fox’s credibility as a news provider and simultaneously damaged the cause of all Democrats and progressives.

What a bitterly disappointing turn of events from a candidate who had previously snubbed the hacks at Fox News for nearly a year. What could have prompted him to make such a foolish and pointless decision? Surely it couldn’t have anything to do with his aide’s recent altercation with Bill O’Reilly. The last thing that Fox should get for their top personality behaving like a thug is a reward!

Was Obama intimidated by Chris Wallace calling Democrats “fools“ for not appearing on Fox? Has he forgotten what Fox spokespeople said when he pulled out of a Fox-sponsored debate in Nevada last year?

“Obama and his staff are in for a rude awakening if they think they can write off Fox News. If a candidate is serious about running for president, he or she is going to need a network like Fox to reach out to all those voters in the red and purple states.”

And…

“If true, perhaps Mr. [Robert] Gibbs [an Obama campaign manager] should reconsider that ill-advised strategy given his candidate is trailing by 20 points in the polls.”

Obama has proven all of them wrong, and he did it without any help from them – despite their self-important threats that they are indispensable. Nothing has changed since then. There has been no apology or even an acknowledgment of slack reporting. Fox spent the rest of the year smearing Obama and his Democratic colleagues. Here’s a reminder, Senator…

Just stay the HELL off of Fox News! Is that so damn hard? And read Starve The Beast for more reasons why.

Update: Hillary Clinton was on the same episode of Fox & Friends as Obama. While it is just as bad that Clinton appeared on Fox as Obama, Clinton has appeared on Fox in the past, so it is not exactly news that she did so today. Additionally, she has never articulated an intention to not appear on Fox as Obama and Edwards have. To the contrary, she has been rather chummy with Murdoch who is a contributor and fundraiser for her campaigns.

TV Pundit Jeopardy

Posted by on January 9, 2008 at 1:49 pm. NO Comments :

Full disclosure: Of the top three Democratic presidential candidates, Hillary Clinton is my third choice. But seriously…

Coverage of this campaign has been laughably bad. In New Hampshire, Clinton was predicted to lose to Obama by double digits. Her “emotional moment” torpedoed any chance she had of winning. Her staff was about to undergo a major upheaval. Fox’s Major Garrett even announced that Clinton vets James Carville and Paul Begala were about to take over her campaign. He continued to report this after both publicly denied it, and Begala told him personally that it wasn’t true. Speculation then turned to when Clinton would drop out of the race.

There is a sad irony to this since not too long ago all the press could talk about was Clinton’s “inevitability.” Then Obama’s win in Iowa made him inevitable and Clinton a has-been.

Coverage of every Democrat has fallen far short of any standard of professionalism. Edwards, when not being outright ignored, was ganged up on for trivialities like haircuts and homestead. Obama was slandered as a potential Muslim extremist who was schooled in a Madrassa. But Clinton has suffered some of the most vile attacks based on the misogynistic tendencies of the male-dominated press corps. Among the most frequent criticisms is the myth that she starts off with higher negatives than other candidates. Here’s the truth:

Dec 2007 Favorable Unfavorable
McCain 53% 27%
Edwards 49% 42%
Clinton 48% 50%
Obama 43% 51%
Thompson 42% 42%
Giuliani 40% 55%
Huckabee 40% 47%
Romney 38% 51%

Both Giuliani and Romney score lower in favorability and higher in unfavorability than Clinton. But do we ever hear reporters talking about how devastatingly unpopular they are?

So the pundits, as usual got it all wrong. They’ve been wrong every step of the way. And when they are shown to be wrong, they simply shift their weight and devise a new theory that will later be shown to be wrong as well. The big problem with that is that they will be on the air tomorrow (and many more tomorrows) to get it wrong some more.

Why does it have to be that way? Wouldn’t it be great if punditry worked more like Jeopardy? Whoever has scored the highest by the end of the day gets to come back and play the next day. Those who got more of their answers wrong are never heard from again. This simple modification of the rules of the game would vastly improve the media’s political analysis.