TIME's Mark Halperin: 'Extreme Pro-Obama Media Bias A Disgusting Failure'

[LittleApple81]

Amazing that this guy doesn't remember what they did with Bush for 8 years!


http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1108/15885.html

Media bias was more intense in the 2008 election than in any other national campaign in recent history, Time magazine's Mark Halperin said Friday at the Politico/USC conference on the 2008 election.

"It's the most disgusting failure of people in our business since the Iraq war," Halperin said at a panel of media analysts. "It was extreme bias, extreme pro-Obama coverage."

Halperin, who maintains Time's political site "The Page," cited two New York Times articles as examples of the divergent coverage of the two candidates.
....

[Sarah Ibarruri]

1. I googled Mark Halperin. This guy is a right wing extremist - GOPism has been for him....

.. his bread and butter. He sees his good living disappearing so of course he's pissed!

[CTyankee]

11. I don't understand. His father, Mort, was a target of Nixon's White House and he sued Nixon!

What the hell is the matter with Mark? His own FATHER was a victim of right wing chicanery!

That guy is anathema to me. His dad, Mort, was a BIG hero to the anti-Vietnam War movement.

Dear god...

[hlthe2b]

20. Sad isn't it, when good people produce offspring that are

demon spawn! :evilgrin:

[Sarah Ibarruri]

42. LOL! Demon spawn is a great name for Mark! nt

[Sarah Ibarruri]

41. Obviously this Mark guy is a first-class idiot. lol nt

[kirby]

68. Mike Wallace / Chris Wallace n/t

[BrklynLiberal]

2. ***plechhh****

[SemiCharmedQuark]

3. Halperin is *always* complaining that Republicans are being treated unfairly.

"Conservatives forever braying about a liberal bias in the press received a big boost last month when Mark Halperin, director of ABC's political unit, took to the airwaves with the reddest of Bush partisans -- talkers Sean Hannity, Bill O'Reilly and Hugh Hewitt -- to voice his heated agreement that the mainstream press treats Republicans unfairly.

Confirming their longstanding fears, Halperin insisted that reporters are "overwhelmingly liberal," they "hate the military," are "blind" to their bias, and should use the closing weeks of the campaign season to "prove" their worth to right-wingers. Suddenly, instead of conservatives working the refs -- badgering journalists with complaints of bias in hopes they would get the benefit of the doubt next time there was a close call in the newsroom -- it was one of the refs (Halperin) working the refs.


...

Halperin signs off on right-wing press conspiracies

Here are some of the Rush Limbaugh-like talking points Halperin echoed during his appearances on conservative outlets:

* "I think we've got a chance in these last two weeks to prove to conservatives that we understand their grievances."

* "The reality of how affects media coverage is outrageous."

* "he Mary Mapes' of the world are ruining it for the rest of us, and they are the dominant majority."

* "Most of my colleagues, as you know, are in denial about , or blind to it."

* "The old system was biased against conservatives; there's no doubt about it." "

[Sebastian Doyle]

4. Politico criticizing media bias is about as logical as FAUX Noise doing the same

Politic-Ho is to Team Clinton/DLC what FAUX is to Chimp/PNAC.

[quiet.american]

5. I'm so tired of these kind of clowns. nt

[cameozalaznick]

6. I guess he was sound asleep during that month

that Reverend Wright was on a continuous loop. And he must have been out of town during that entire WEEK of the lipstick/pig controversy.

[Cha]

12. mark halperin spends his

life 1/2 asleep.

[babylonsister]

7. What a bunch of hogwash. I'm thinking Halperin can't get the taste

of sour grapes out of his mouth. Just maybe, if McSame's campaign hadn't been so revolting, he'd have gotten better press.

http://www.fair.org/index.php?page=3612
The Myth of Pro-Obama Media Bias
Little evidence for self-proclaimed ‘lovefest’

http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story/no-pro-obama-media-bias-says/story.aspx?guid={05F36C9C-40CB-49B3-A679-3432CA660E26}
Jim Lehrer sees no pro-Obama media bias
Commentary: 'There's an ebb and flow to the news'

[Cha]

8. mark halperin is a lying piece of shit..

and he knows it.

Fucker must be apoleptic about not getting his tax cuts.

Tough that mccain and palin had so much negatives to offer and the corporatemedia couldn't cover it up this time.

mark halperin gets the stinky cheeze award to go with his whine.

[VADem11]

9. The media bias charge

just never dies for the rightwingers does it? It seems like the Washington Post is obsessed with avoiding any hints of Obama bias as well. Thankfully, these people are becoming more and more irrelevant.

[Cali_Democrat]

10. Mark Halperin carries water for the GOP

Earlier this year he said McCain should...."Emphasize Barack Hussein Obama's unusual name and exotic background through a Manchurian Candidate prism."

http://thepage.time.com/halperin%E2%80%99s-take-ways-mccain-can-beat-obama-that-clinton-cannot/

[Cha]

15. mark halperin lost and the Planet

won. HaHa.

[Thrill]

13. How tough has Halperin covered the Iraq war and the lead up to it?

Fucking Hyprocrite

[Starry Messenger]

14. Marcia, Marcia, Marcia!

What a whiny shallow article. I love this part:

"The example that I use, at the end of the campaign, was the two profiles that The New York Times ran of the potential first ladies," Halperin said. "The story about Cindy McCain was vicious. It looked for every negative thing they could find about her and it case her in an extraordinarily negative light. It didn't talk about her work, for instance, as a mother for her children, and they cherry-picked every negative thing that's ever been written about her."

The story about Michelle Obama, by contrast, was "like a front-page endorsement of what a great person Michelle Obama is," according to Halperin.

Sorry if the truth hurts, fuckstick.

[ErinBerin84]

19. so, there were articles written about Michelle's fucking college thesis, Halperin.

Excuse Michelle for not being a drug thief...geeze.

[progressivebydesign]

16. Um. If McCain had anything GOOD to report on, they would have reported on it.

Duh. It's not Obama's fault that McCain ran the worst campaign in the history of American elections. I guess I was asleep in journalism class the day they explained that you HAVE to report everything in equally glowing terms when writing about two campaigns -- even if one campaign is a totally worthless piece of shit campaign.

This faux equivalency must be a new invention in journalism. If something blows.. the damnit the media needs to report on how badly it blows.

[ErinBerin84]

17. Mark Halperin has a history of being on crack.

He consistently rated McCain as having an "amazing, winning " week, after an especially horrific, embarrassing week for McCain. And he said that Sarah Palin in the VP debate was the third coming of Reagan and Bill Clinton...he's just trying to get attention, like Zogby. He said that McCain won the week that the economy crashed! And he said that McCain won the week where he had a gaffe per day, like the birth control/viagra google eyes, among others.

"


http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/09/18/mark-halperin-somehow-con_n_127512.html (Jason Linkins)

"Okay. I was alive this past week, and I couldn't help but notice that the following things occurred:

The economy collapsed, putting McCain's party at a distinct disadvantage.
McCain, nevertheless, said the "fundamentals of our economy are strong."
Then he said they weren't.
Then he said that by "economic fundamentals" he meant "workers," a definition no one else in the world uses.
McCain's response initially was a big government approach to fighting greed.
Followed by a small government approach to fighting regulation.
Prominent conservatives like David Brooks, Chuck Hagel and Charles Krauthammer, threw a big wet blanket on McCain for his choice to put Sarah Palin on the ticket.
As did incoherent McCain enthusiast Richard Cohen.
Karl Rove warned that the Palin frenzy was going to cool down.
Which is wise, because it is.
Meanwhile, McCain's surrogates are getting worked like speedbags all over the media.
Including a chorus of the piss and moan blues after the rough treatment the McCains received on that perennially hard-hitting news show, The View.
One prominent surrogate said that Tina Fey, of all people, was "sexist."
The same surrogate said that John McCain and Sarah Palin didn't have the acumen to run a company.
Those remarks forced the McCain campaign to "disappear" her.
Not so for the idiot who went in front of reporters to claim that John McCain invented the BlackBerry.
And then John McCain decided, "Heck, why not ramp up some pointless diplomatic conflict with Spain?"
After that sort of week, one might expect that the negative poll trends that bedeviled Obama in the run out from the Republican National Convention would begin to reverse themselves. And, you know what? They have.

BUT FORGET ALL THAT. Because Mark Halperin, over at his Kooky Komic Book Of Politics, sees it differently: "Obama Closes Strong, But McCain Wins The Week." Which raises one question. Why is Mark Halperin TOTALLY BOGARTING THE PINEAPPLE EXPRESS HE'S SMOKING? "

[AtomicKitten]

18. pffffft

[lxlxlxl]

21. The media is center/right...the more they protest about liberals i know its just a mask.

after these last eight years, its obvious to me that the media
is a bunch of undergrads incapable of seeing how their careerist
material comfort is a justification for the worst type of conservatism--
the conservatism that doesnt need anything other than distraction
to succeed.

[MidwestTransplant]

22. Maybe if their campaign wasn't all lies, smears and gimmicks they would have got better coverage.

[nxylas]

23. As always, The Onion nailed it

http://www.theonion.com/content/news/top_story_on_john_mccain_run_out

[dennis4868]

24. "Media bias was more intense in the 2008 election than in any other national campaign "

ummmmm where was this guy in 2000 when Al Gore was killed by the media day after day for things he did not do or say and all the while Bush got a free pass on EVERYTHING!

[Guy Whitey Corngood]

26. I'm going to take a wild guess and say he was helping perpetrate the same thing

he now claims happened in 2008.

[politicasista]

54. It was there in 2004 also n/t

[JI7]

25. whore

[jenmito]

27. Did he miss the non-stop coverage of Rev. Wright? Not to mention how the media totally

gave McCain passes on his not knowing the difference between Shia and Sunni, on lying to a fellow veteran about his own voting record re: vets' rights, on his getting a "D" for his voting record for vets., etc.

[Orsino]

28. "Reality has a well-known liberal bias."

"Mark Halperin...A Disgusting Failure"

[WeDidIt]

29. YEah, because going on an on about Wright, Ayers, Michelle's gaffe etc.

showed so much pro-Obama bias.

:eyes:

Halperin, you goddamned rightwingnut hack, fuck you very much. You're just pissed off because nobody would touch the really crazy bullshit about the birth certificate and LArry Sinclair with a ten foot pole and you didn't have the nerve to put your career on the line talking about that phony assed bullshit.

[ProSense]

30. Obviously, Halperin is pissed McCain-Palin lost. n/t

[Me.]

31. Oh Right

This is the guy who put a picture of Obama as a dirty rat out up on Time.com, which was so egregious it had to be taken down. Why they didn't fire him on the spot is beyond me.

[Trajan]

32. This is BULLSHIT

Based on the fact that the media promoted two divergent views of two different candidates ...

Well NO SHIT SHERLOCK ! ...

Two candidates would provide TWO separate worldviews as they campaign, and ONE candidate promoted a POSITIVE worldview based on inclusion ... while the other provides a SLASH AND BURN campaign message that tore down America, trying to impugn half the population as 'not america', and to marginalize the citizenry to an ugly narrow minded hateful view ....

When Obama was covered: It promoted HIS positive view ...

When McCain/Palin was covered : It promoted THEIR ugly negative view ....

That is EXACTLY what we would expect from such divergent viewpoints ....

What does Mark want ? .... the media to COMPOSE a positive campaign message from McCain even if he was unwilling to do so ?

I would challenge Mr. Halperin to provide a SINGLE POSITIVE MESSAGE expressed by the McCain camp .... name ONE ....

Country First ? ... My ASS !

FUCK you Mark .... Goddamned liar ....

[Liberal Progressive]

33. Ayers ayers ayers wright wright wright terrorist muslim huseein BOOGA BOOGA BOOGA!

What kind of idiot is Mark Halperin?

[FrenchieCat]

38. Socialist, socialist, socialist, Rezco, Rezco, Rezco, Communist, Communist, Communist.....

Bradley Effect, Hard working Whites, Bradley Effect, Hard Working Whites, Bradley Effect, Hard working Whites, Bradley Effect, Hard Working Whites, Bradley Effect, Hard working Whites, Bradley Effect, Hard Working Whites, Bradley Effect, Hard working Whites, Bradley Effect, Hard Working Whites, Bradley Effect, Hard working Whites, Bradley Effect, Hard Working Whites, Bradley Effect, Hard working Whites, Bradley Effect, Hard Working Whites,

[Liberal Progressive]

40. I think you forgot to mention the Bradley Effect!

:evilgrin:

[Realityhack]

34. When you are loosing the game... game the refs. n/t

[nxylas]

35. They need an explanation for their loss that absolves them from any blame

The idea that people ain't buying what they're selling is just too painful to contemplate. Why wouldn't Mr. and Mrs. Real America vote for another four years of having their life savings plundered in order to pay for endless wars and "golden parachutes" for corporate fatcats?

[Realityhack]

39. Yep that's part of it.

At a higher level though they also will admit something is fair and label it as biased any way to try to game the 'ref' (typically the media).

[calmblueocean]

36. Stupid and shortsighted. McCain brought most of his neg. press upon himself by making bad choices!

I've heard a lot of conservatives blaming the media for their loss this time around.

None of them seem to be able to admit that McCain's bad choices forced a lot of the negative reporting he got. When he "suspended" his campaign, canceled the upcoming debate, flew to Washington -- where the bill he supposedly flew to support failed to pass -- and then "uncanceled" the debate without any resolution on the matter he'd suspended his campaign for... how can you NOT expect negative press?

When you pick a woman who hasn't even spent a full term as governor as your VP, and you hide her away from all interviews, refuse to let her give any press conferences, and then when she finally gives an interview, she repeatedly utters comments that reveal her ignorance... how can you NOT expect negative press?

Obama got plenty of negative press of his own. Remember how Obama "couldn't close the deal"? Does the phrase "hardworking whites" ring a bell? How about the words "bitter" and "cling"? And who could forget, "No no no, not 'God bless America! God DAMN America!" we heard it every 10 minutes for about a month.

But Obama was and is a genuine phenomenon, and the press had to cover it, because it was genuine news. People like Halperin would have journalists ignore what's really happening in favor of reporting a false neutrality where each side is made out to have equal amounts of excitement, and run equally good campaigns, even when one side is surging and the other is stumbling.

[high density]

37. Halperin, there's nobody to blame for that but McCain

McCain ran a 100% negative campaign, and his coverage reflected that. McCain's campaign was all over the place with the kitchen sink strategy, flummoxed just like the Hillary Clinton people were in the primaries. Obama's was positive and of hope, so his media narrative generally went along those lines. (Except for those times like when he was forced by them to quit his church, or ABC News reminding us that Osama bin Laden should release a video the weekend before the election to stay relevant.)

[Trajan]

63. EXACTLY .....

Im glad to hear more of this .....

[DCBob]

43. McCain/Palin deserved the negative stories...

and more. The MSM media desperately misreported and misrepresented the facts to keep McCain in the race.

[AndrewP]

44. If you are evil war mongering assholes, you should get bad press

Of course, the truth is that much of the media kissed McCains ass because of his "Straight Talk" false reputation.

[malik flavors]

45. Mark Halperin is an EXCELLENT journalist. Truly one of the finest political voices we have.

Oh no!!! He said something we didn't like!! Boo-hoo, get over it.

He's absolutely objective in his coverage. If he thinks the media was biased during this election, that's his opinion, but it doesn't make hime a right-wing shill. Jeez, some people around here are so freaking ridiculous.

He's also the guy that said the media needed to do it's job and keep digging into Palin's past and report whatever was there to be reported, regardless of the cries from conservatives. I didn't hear anybody around here complaining when he said that during prime time on national television.

:eyes:

[ErinBerin84]

46. Mark Halperin, the great journalist?

You're entitled to your own opinion (and I guess Mark is entitled to his....), but I still think that Mark has a history of misrepresenting the facts, and I have thought so for a while....it has nothing to do with this one thing he has said, I just think he's a hypocrite. He has also said some gushing things about Palin that I question, so whatever...he's entitled to his own opinion, but I just find it funny that him of all people gets santimonious about the media coverage. He tries to make The Page into the new Drudge Report.

[malik flavors]

48. The only similarity between the two is that they're both frequently updated.

You can't tell me that "The Page" has a republican lean, because it doesn't. It's straight down the middle with plenty of pro-Obama stories and some not-so-great Obama stories. The way honest journalism should be.

[ErinBerin84]

49. touche...I guess just in terms of, he wants to make himself seem really relevent

I still think that Mark Halperin is a whore who has a history of distorting the truth, but I guess our opinions differ.

[JamesA1102]

55. Please, Halperin is a right wing shill and always has been

He's been pulling this same BS since his days at The Note. Just go to Media Matters and The Daily Howler and do a search. They has many examples of Halperin's blantant bias.

[SemiCharmedQuark]

56. For the last 3 years, he's been claiming media bias against Republicans

This is not just something he's said once. His interview with Hugh Hewitt was appalling

http://glenngreenwald.blogspot.com/2006/10/mark-halperin-and-hugh-hewitt-all-you.html

[Blue_Tires]

57. either way; he's grossly wrong here

if he wants to call out the campaign media for having a cozier relationship with Obama than McCain, then more power to him...But for him to say Obama got the same kid-glove treatment that the run-up to the Iraq invasion did is irresponsible hyperbole

[Blue_Tires]

64. digby proves otherwise:

http://digbysblog.blogspot.com/2008/11/disgusting-failure-by-digby-mark.html

[walldude]

47. So what if it was. The goddamn Republicans have been

screaming about the liberal media for years. If we are going to take shit for it we could at least have one. On top of that Obama was NEWS. Read my lips McCain=Old and Boring Obama=Young and Exciting, and that's also why Palin got so much goddamn coverage, because whatever she was to either side it wasn't boring.

[ClarkUSA]

50. I didn't know Halperin was a PUMA.

;rofl:

[City Lights]

51. Halperin is full of shit.

And anyone paying attention knows it.

[AlCzervik]

52. hmm, the couple of times i saw him on Charlie Rose he sounded in love with Obama.

whatever dude.

[LynnTheDem]

53. Republican Mark says media biased for Obama. Gee.

Really.

:eyes:

Markie's pet peeve "liberal bias" in 2006;

http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/2008/09/03/halperin/

"Liberal bias" my fucking arse.

[zulchzulu]

58. Ferchissakes, George Will was masturbating every time he talked about Reverend Wright

Ayers... Wright... he can't make the sale... the Bradley effect? Ayers, Wright, can't get the woman vote... he's an elitist...

IT WAS MONTHS AND MONTHS OF THAT SHIT!!!

[JaneQPublic]

59. When one campaign is nearly flawless and the other is deeply flawed...

...the media are not biased when they accurately report that reality.

[Nevernose]

60. Reality has a well-known liberal bias

I wonder what great American thinker could have said that...

[Beacool]

61. Now he notices the bias????????????

Where the hell was he doing the primaries when Tweety and many others in the media had a collective case of tingling legs? Funny how so many journalists are now claiming mea culpa and a bias, well they go what they wanted. Why complain about it now?

:grr:

[Median Democrat]

67. Is It Bias Not To Give Equal Time To Global Warming Deniers?

Mark Halperin is once again pushing the logical fallacy of false neutrality. All ideas do not have equal weight. For example, McCain's promise to balance the budget in four years is not equal to Obama's recognition that the budget will not be balanced in 1 term. Halperin complains about media bias, but what does he mean by that?

It seems that he is referring to an equal proportion of negative and positive stories, but according to this logic, whenever a story on global warming is published, there should also be equal time to a global warming denier.

Media bias is red herring. The real question is accuracy and fairness. Rush Limbaugh does not equal Rachel Maddow, because while both are biased, Rush tends to push false facts to fit his idealogy.

[Renew Deal]

62. I'd say Halperin is part of the problem.

I looked at his site a few times. I don't remember it being particularly critical of Obama. I've also seen him on CNN. Why didn't he bring this up during the election?

[samsingh]

65. we should get the facts out before the imbeciles in the media

decide to turn far, far right (they are already far right) in response to these sorts of lies.

[blm]

66. He never noticed the months of 24/7 coverage the media gave the Swiftliars

Interrupted every now and then by TERROR ALERTS? And did he forget that corpmedia REFUSED to broadcast Kerry's counters to the lies or allow airtime to those who would assault the lies of the swifts?

Halperin forgets the media TURNED on Dan Rather and made sure he was pushed out of the business because he dared expose the truth about AWOL Bush they all must have pledged to keep hidden?

[Jennicut]

69. HA! And in 2000 there was not pro Shrub bias? what comes around goes around Markie

[Drunken Irishman]

70. Mark Halperin is a disgusting piece of afterbirth.

Oh yeah, and a failure.

[CitizenLeft]

71. this, after declaring Obama's 30-minute infomercial...

"fucking brilliant?"

If a candidate is an excellent candidate, is intuitive, efficient, inspiring, and takes the high-road, it's "bias?" What if it's true... and everybody says so?

Asshole.

[stevietheman]

72. Halperin must have blinders on to not see how badly McCain mangled his campaign.

Of course, the media would treat Obama better. He was running an effective campaign, and McCain was stumbling all over the place!

[brindis_desala]

73. Once again liberals are chastised for being coherent. n/t