When you hear the right complain, as they always do, about the so-called liberal media, keep in mind the fact that Fox News is the most watched cable news network, that the Wall Street Journal is the largest national newspaper, that talk radio is dominated by conservatives, and that the Internet’s most referenced site belongs to Matt Drudge. What exactly do they think the media is?
Add to that the fact that many establishment news providers bend over backwards to avoid being targeted by conservative critics for having a liberal bias. Or worse, they strive to emulate the right-wing media in hopes of duplicating their perceived success.
CNN is the worst offender in this contest of running to the right. Their aggressive shift in ideology has been well documented. They have hired numerous far-right extremists with no effort to achieve any sort of balance. And that includes the news chief, Ken Jautz. Consequently, their ratings have collapsed along with their journalistic integrity.
This past weekend CNN broadcast another example of how their sinking ethics have impacted their news judgment. The segment by Tom Foreman was centered on the absurd premise that the Obama campaign has engaged in “Swiftboating” Mitt Romney by accurately questioning his business experience, his millions of dollars in off-shore tax havens, and his refusal to release more than a year or two of his tax returns. Foreman concludes his report saying…
Tom Foreman: In ad after ad, Democrats are suggesting that Romney is a fatcat job outsourcer, an opportunistic financial predator, and an elitist out of touch with the working class. Never mind that many of those claims appear to be backed with little or no evidence. […] Some Republican analysts fear that Mitt Romney could be the second politician from Massachusetts to be Swiftboated out of the presidency.
The problem with Foreman’s conclusion is that there is abundant evidence of the claims made in the Obama ads. And the questions they raise are those that would require answers from any political candidate. Who could deny that Romney is a fatcat? The job outsourcing by Bain entities is not even denied by Romney. He just argues that he wasn’t there at the time (despite official SEC filings that contradict him). And how could someone be more out of touch than by saying that he likes to fire people, he’s not concerned about the poor, and that corporations are people?
Foreman was not alone in raising the specter of Swiftboating on CNN. Reporter Jim Acosta misused the term when he interviewed Mitt Romney on Friday asking him whether he thought he was being Swiftboated. Talk about your softball questions. And media analyst Howard Kurtz also misused the term while promoting his Sunday program Reliable Sources. He was acutely concerned about Romney’s welfare under the intense pressure he must be suffering.
Howard Kurtz: I’ve been increasingly worried about whether the media that have been pushing a lot of these stories, “Boston Globe”, “Washington Post” on outsourcing, “Vanity Fair” on Cayman Island accounts, seem to some people to be echoing the message of the Obama campaign by raising so many questions about Romney’s business background.
Apparently Kurtz is of the opinion that if a story is getting a lot of attention the reporters should immediately stop covering it for fear of overtaxing the beleaguered subject of the story and to avoid charges of bias by “some people” on the receiving end of the bad news. How very considerate of him.
For the record, Swiftboating is a term that describes a campaign to disparage a candidate’s strengths that is based on falsehoods and lacks evidence. It is wholly improper to use the term simply to denounce ads that are critical of a candidate. Criticism that is rooted in the truth, with evidence to back it up, is not Swiftboating in any way shape or form. In fact, refraining from such relevant criticism would be campaign malpractice.
Asking Romney to account for his activities in business, which is the core of his campaign, is fair game. So is asking him to release tax returns as almost every candidate in modern times does – since his own father set the standard back in 1968. But suggesting that news coverage of such issues is Swiftboating, as CNN has done three times in as many days, is proof that the network has lost all interest in being a professional news enterprise.
That’s really too bad. CNN will continue down this path of destruction as long as the try emulating Fox by trying to be Fox lite. As far as I’m concerned the sooner they get demolished the better. Maybe they will realize that they need to go back to being a real news organization that reports the news and informs the public, the sooner the better. I hope the new NBC.com(old msnbc) doesn’t make this same mistake.
“…go back to being a real news organization…”
Wouldn’t that be nice? We have to keep pushing them.
On the bright side, repeating this: “Romney is a fatcat job outsourcer, an opportunistic financial predator, and an elitist out of touch with the working class” is a strategic error. Studies in rhetoric have shown that planting such ideas in people’s minds will have staying power – refuting it will not. So haha! Also, “Boston Globe”, “Washington Post” on outsourcing, “Vanity Fair” on Cayman Island accounts” kind of just tells people where to go for more info, thanks!
On the other hand, it’s rather curious that the right is using what THEY DID to a candidate – Swiftboating – as a pejorative…I don’t get it?
All really good points.
Waaah Waaah Waaah! It’s not fair! The News Media is supposed to be calling Obama a Commie or a Kenyan and talking about Jeremiah Wright! Not showing that Romney is a greasy, chicken hawk, bully, punk ass bitch vulture capitalist who made Billions in the Bane Capital Business Model of destroying American companies and eliminating American jobs! Waaah Waah Waaah!
Howard Kurtz is a putz.
That’s the definition of Swiftboating?
Hold on, let me see if I can find any recent examples that fit it.
……..
Ah here’s one: The right have been saying since even before Obama’s first term that he is not American, that he is actually born in Kenya (a.k.a the Kenyan Usurper). Along the way he has also picked up a whole bunch of other titles: “Communist”, “Socialist”, “Marxist”, “Fascist”, “Tyrant”, “Incompetent”, “Muslim”, “Radical” “Constitution Shredding”, “Drug Abuser”, “Anti-Women”, “Class Warfare Instigator” and the most damning of all “Destroyer of America as we know it”.
Trouble is….the evidence for any of the above has been far from forthcoming…..
So is that a good enough example?
Everyone is just supposed to vote for Romney, not ask questions.
This notion that we as American voters are entitled to some modicum of understanding of those who wish to hold the highest office in the land is pure rubbish and might I say very unnecessary as well as overly intrusive. What happened to just believing in or idolizing of those who have elevated themselves to the stature that Romney holds? Is Romney not entitled to soar above the proletariat, to do and say without question?
I think that this entire debacle of Romney’s past, present, and future antics speaks volumes about the type of leader he will be. It’s bad enough that our Government has already forsaken the people for the financial wellspring of special interests and corporate indulgence, but what exactly will Romney bring to the table if not more of the same….
You know a network is desperate to create a fake image of fairness for itself when it hires Erick freakin’ Erickson. You don’t get much more pathetic and low level than that. The only decent person at CNN is Anderson Cooper, although he makes similar mistakes himself, but not as frequently.