Boehlert dissects and eviscerates the media's Rove idolatry

[BurtWorm]

http://mediamatters.org/columns/200611140003

...


The Rove hero worship was evident all summer long, like when pundits and reporters -- echoing Rove -- suggested Iraq was going to hurt Democrats at the polls and that Ned Lamont's primary win over Sen. Joe Lieberman in Connecticut would cripple Democrats nationwide by tarring them with an anti-war image. (An image, it turned out, that actually propelled Democrats to victory last week.)

In June, just before the Senate debated setting a timetable for troop withdrawal from Iraq, Rove signaled his intention to tar Democrats as "cut and run" defeatists who didn't have the stomach to "ight, beat 'em, win." And apparently when Rove signs off on a political strategy (hit the Dems hard over Iraq), the press assumes it's a masterful stroke and shows little interest in dwelling on the pertinent questions, such as: Weren't Republicans running an obvious risk by making the hugely unpopular war in Iraq the centerpiece for their 2006 campaign? Instead, too many journalists at the time purposefully ignored clear polling data that obliterated the narrative that the Republicans had the winning hand in the Iraq troop debate.

To cite just one of many examples, an NBC/Wall Street Journal survey at the time specifically asked people if they would be more likely or less likely to support a candidate who "avors pulling all American troops out of Iraq within the next twelve months." By a margin of 54-32, Americans said they were more likely to vote for a candidate (read: a Democrat) who wants to pull troops out of Iraq by next summer.

Yet amidst the Iraq debate last June, ABC's Halperin warned Democrats, "If I were them, I'd be scared to death about November's elections," while Newsweek announced "Democrats lost the week in the war over the war" and that "the GOP was clearly on the rebound." ABC's The Note, issued by the network's Halperin-led political unit, declared that Democrats were "on the precipice of making Iraq a 2006 political winner for the Republican Party."

Meanwhile, framing the debate on Today, NBC's Matt Lauer wondered, "Are the Democrats losing the political battle over the war in Iraq?" Asked about the troops debate, ABC's Liz Marlantes announced "Republicans are strutting right now," while The Washington Post reported Democrats were "scrambling" to find a winning position on Iraq.

The narrative had no basis in reality -- virtually every published poll at the time suggested the war was going to be a deadly anchor around the necks of Republicans come November -- but Rove was spinning his illogical tale, so lots of journalists played along, too timid to call it out for the obvious miscalculation that it was....


<Read the whole http://mediamatters.org/columns/200611140003">article>

[Raster]

1. I have NEVER understood the fawning and simpering over kkkarl rove. NEVER!

The two things he's got going for him are (1) his almost sociopathic capability of sinking to new depths of electoral dirty tricks; (2) his capacity for self-promotion and bullshit. And folks, that's it. I never cease to be amazed at all the supposedly smart people that are willing to give rove much more credit than he deserves. I can understand the g.o.p. talking heads--you know, the Faux News crowd--after all, they get paid to disseminate rove's self-aggrandizing bullshit. But the rest? Puhleeze, Louise. History is going to remember the pResidency of george dumbya bush* as one of the worst clusterfucks in American history, in no small part thanks to kkkarl rove. This is no political genius, just an opportunistic ratfucker. And while I'm on the subject...

MEMO to the Vichy American Main Stream Media: there were two main collaborators and enablers that allowed the bowel movement of a presidency of bush* to get as far as it did, a g.o.p. majority Congress that not only abdicated their oversight duties, but also their collective intelligence. In addition, it was a compliant, traitorous media that allowed bush* and his band of miscreants to run roughshod on the Constitution. As we go forward to heal these wounds and clean up this mess, we will never forget that you helped perpetuate this disgrace. If not for you bush* would have been gone a long time ago. Thanks, fuckers. Pay back is a bitch.
:kick:ONE!!!

[Cha]

2. They're just mediawhores..they have

the word down from the top. Make Dems look bad and build up baby huey.

And isn't Eric Boehlert a republican?

[BurtWorm]

4. Is he? That would shock me.

He wrote Lapdogs, and now he writes for Media Matters. He's always very hard on Republicans. But maybe he's perverse in that way a little? :shrug:

(Maybe you're thinking of Sherwood Boehlert, the recently retired NY congressman?)

[Cha]

5. Sorry, Not Sherwood but I could

have my Erics mixed up cause there is one who is from Canada who is a conservative but he's been so disgusted by the bush regime that simply writing the truth makes him seem like a Dem.

I'll have to remember which Eric I'm thinking of..:)

Sherwood Boehlert is in my District, though, and now I have Michael Arcuri!

[BurtWorm]

6. All right!

:thumbsup:

[Ms. Clio]

8. you're thinking of Eric Margolis

http://www.ericmargolis.com/

[Cha]

11. Yes! Thank you! I've been

trying to think of that all last night and again this morning. :)

Conservative but does not think much of the current regime in the USA!

[Ms. Clio]

12. I knew exactly who you were thinking about, since I read him often

In addition to his unrelenting criticism of the current regime, I also appreciate his knowledge about the Middle East.

Glad I could help. :)

[tularetom]

3. Ever watch that Mike Allen asswipe on Countdown

Even there his crush on * and Rove is obvious. He makes Tweety look objective by comparison. I don't know why KO has whores like him, Fineman and Milbank on, you can tell by his questioning he doesn't buy the shit they say.

[Skidmore]

13. Mike Allen just makes me physically ill to watch.

And you are right in saying he makes Tweety look like he has both feet on the ground. I've never seen a reporter so blatantly gaga over a public figure as Allen is over * and Rove.

[Mr_Spock]

7. We STILL have a LOT of work to do

I don't know about you, but this victory has given me little in the way of satisfaction. I am still very worried about the long term and we still need to "take back our nation".

[BurtWorm]

10. We don't get to vote on who's in the media.

Nothing has changed as far as they're concerned.

[leftofthedial]

9. the corporate media has been obsessed with "narratives" since Whitewater

and NONE of them has had the slightest basis in reality