Obama-Nation Oversteps its Bounds, Foreshadows Coming Media Self-Correction

By ripping ABC’s moderators in the last debate, two of the liberal mainstream political media’s most visible members, Obama’s supporters might have alienated some of its supporters in the media.  The media has taken its blows for being shills for Obama.  Mark Halperin, a prominent liberal journalist with an occasional tendency to speak truth, for one example, slammed the media for indefensibly biasing its stories toward Obama. 

This sort of criticism from the liberal media itself further calls into question the credibility of a political media that currently suffers in terms of ratings, subscriptions and influence.  When the liberal political media already bleeds to the point where one can reasonably doubt their financial viability because of the competition of the Internet and other fairer media, a laughable "bias" scold from the reactionary Obama-nation that already reaps the rewards of countless barrels of biased ink represents the last sermon the liberal media wants to hear.

David Gregory, another prominent liberal journalist in the mainstream media, defended Stephanopoulos and Gibson on the Tim Russert show this past weekend.  After Chuck Todd pointed out that MoveOn.org was already hitting journalists in an effort to shield Obama from media scrutiny in the future, David Gregory said, “Obama has been in trouble.  He deserves some tough questions and scrutiny.  There have been things that he has said and outside events that have really tested him.  He is on the precipice of closing this deal.  He should face some tough questions.”  Gregory seemed irritated by the suggestion that Obama should skate through this process without tough media scrutiny. 

When one steps back and takes in the panoramic view of the modern western political media universe, he or she sees that the “mainstream media” no longer occupies the throne as sole arbiter of fairness in elections.  After decades of liberal dominance in the American media, a robust and ubiquitous conservative media has developed whose primary mission no longer rests in only keeping the liberal media honest, but also in developing its own storylines designed to exert its influence on the shape of the political terrain.  Perhaps David Gregory knows that if his wing of the media continues to give Obama a free ride, it will lose more viewers or at least fail to grow as robustly as its fairer competitors, further diminishing their already dramatically weakened influence relative to that of only ten or fifteen years ago.

Until the ABC debate Obama had received a free ride from the leftist media.  This last debate represented the first instance where the barely mainstream media actually lived up to the role the billing “mainstream” suggests it should take.  The free ride for Obama cannot last or headlines like “New York Times posts loss” from three days ago will continue.  The media is rapidly losing its liberal giants.  When Russert, Gregory, Gibson and Stephanopoulos have to choose between the options of destroying their status as media giants by shilling for Obama or giving him a thorough examination when it counts, they will choose the latter.  They saw what happened to CBS News after Rathergate and they do not want to follow Katie Couric down the road of media obscurity and eventual unemployment. 

Wise up Obama-nation.  The free ride ends now or soon enough once the "mainstream" liberal media diminishes itself.   

The Ref | 4/22/08 | Permalink