The media loves a good fight--even when the charges are unfounded

[Barack_America]

With one simple sentence, ABC News confirms the death of Beltway journalism
September 09, 2009 9:09 am ET by Eric Boehlert

It's from an online report about the Obama school "controversy," and it's written by Dan Harris. In his piece, Harris notes that conservatives pre-emptively blasted Obama's stay-in-school speech even though conservatives had no idea what was going to be in the speech. Harris notes that the speech itself "turned out to be little more than a pep talk on the importance of staying in school."

Later in the piece as he tries to put the "controversy" in context, Harris uncorks this era-defining gem:

While the media loves a good fight -- even when the charges are unfounded -- there may be more to conservatives' complaints that play into larger concerns about the president on health care reform.
Behold the wonder. Pretty much sums up the state of affairs, right? "The media loves a good fight--even when the charges are unfounded."

And do I even have to mention that the media's new-found love of unfounded fights is an Obama era special. Or can somebody point me towards the manufactured, unfounded "controversies" hatched during the Bush years that the press treated as big news. (As I've noted, when conservatives--and overwhelming white--activists get mad, it's news. When liberals do it, it's annoying.)

If that weren't bad enough, there were other depressing nuggets from Harris' woeful report. First, he quoted three partisan Obama critics in the story, yet somehow managed to avoid a single Democrat or Obama supporter for his report...

<snip>

So to summarize: ABC News confirms that it will chase any right-wing "fight" even if it's baseless; even if it's "unfounded." In reporting those fights, ABC News will purposefully exclude Democrat voices from the story. And ABC News, while acknowledging a fight is "unfounded," will allow partisan Republicans to blame the White House for the "controversy."

More:
http://mediamatters.org/blog/200909090004