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Media

Kasich’s “Dirty Little Secret”. Not What You Thought?

by Eric on December 21, 2009 · Comments

Modern’s piece on Kasich is up. It’s all I promised and then some. Maybe not what you expected, but there’s a point to that. The right in Ohio has historically gone down the nasty rumor mill road more times than not. They typically do it when most vulnerable. You’ll remember the NAMBLA flailing about that eventually even made it into a debate between now Governor Strickland and his opponent Ken Blackwell (now fringe wingnut columnist).

Then there’s the “Strickland is gay” stuff, lead by Scott Pullins and other right wing bloggers. Now we have the “Ted may have Parkinson’s Disease” being spewed by the likes of Kyle Sisk. The same Kyle Sisk who posts a disgusting Willie Horton-esque attack on the Governor only to edit it then pull it down entirely once it’s discovered that the main suspect in the killing of 4 police officers in Seattle is someone whose 95 year sentence was commuted by Kasich buddy Mike Huckabee. The credibility gap between the two bloggers at this point is Grand Canyon in scale.

My earlier rumor mongering hinting at the subject of Modern’s post is surely a let down for some. The point, however, is to expose the tactics being employed by those on the right who would surely scream should those tactics be used against them. The other thing worth noting is that actual journalists have been hoodwinked by such rumor mongering to the point that they pick up crap from a discredited blogger and push lines of questioning that have no merit whatever. Yet it is doubtful they’ll actually use Modern’s post today to ask Kasich any questions related to the underlying narrative of his campaign and question it.

So while there appears to be no dirty little secret in terms of a gay affair or other such sensational news, there is a dirty little secret related to the basis of the Kasich campaign. We’ll now await to see if Joe Hallett and his brethren have the guts to ask the questions. So how about it guys? Care to question the false narrative that is John Kasich for Governor? There is still time to save your own credibility from the likes of Kyle Sisk.

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McCain Camp Tries Blame and Bash Media Strategy

by Eric on September 3, 2008 · Comments

Ever see the fish at the end of the Faith No More “Epic” video? It defines the McCain campaign this week. They are flailing around like a fish out of water. Gasping for air or any sense of strategy or direction. Their latest toss it against the wall and see if it works strategy is to blame the media for their incompetence and for doing THEIR job of vetting a VP candidate.

Sad, really. Hopefully the media will buy into the advice of fellow journalist Joe Klein and not cave:

it is important for the public to know that Palin raised taxes as governor, supported the Bridge to Nowhere before she opposed it, pursued pork-barrel projects as mayor, tried to ban books at the local library and thinks the war in Iraq is “a task from God.” The attempts by the McCain campaign to bully us into not reporting such things are not only stupidly aggressive, but unprofessional in the extreme.

I know we bloggers will. ;-)

Those on the right who usually hold themselves up as media accountability agents probably won’t join us. Alas.

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McCain: The Media LOVES HIM!

by Eric on July 29, 2008 · Comments

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Study Finds Media Harder on Obama than McCain

by Eric on July 28, 2008 · Comments

I’ve been saying for a while that McCain gets pass after pass. The only reason it really seems the coverage favors Obama over McCain is that Barack makes far fewer stupid blunders than does McCain. There is news there. No surprise. But De Magno Opere uncovers an LA Times pieces that talks about a new study done at The Center for Media and Public Affairs at George Mason University which finds coverage has been far more negative concerning Obama than it has of McCain. Both are covered negatively (which is good really if you define that as scrutiny – that’s the media’s job), but negativity is skewed more in favor of McCain than Obama:

During the evening news, the majority of statements from reporters and anchors on all three networks are neutral, the center found. And when network news people ventured opinions in recent weeks, 28% of the statements were positive for Obama and 72% negative.

Network reporting also tilted against McCain, but far less dramatically, with 43% of the statements positive and 57% negative, according to the Washington-based media center.

Another day, another wingnut talking point obliterated.

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The Marc Dann Uproar is NOT About Sex!

by Eric on May 9, 2008 · Comments

Not that it’s the first time I’ve ever disagreed with Brian Rothenberg, but it’s time to do so again. Brian and I are famous for our squaring off over a dinner with Barack Obama. We even had a few roundabouts in the office when I worked at ProgressOhio.

So here we go again.

Brian’s latest Shadows on High column reads like a defense of Marc Dann. The argument? It’s just SEX (and the media are obsessing over it).

Well, it’s not just about sex. The lurid details about pajamas or no pajamas aside, this story is about inept leadership and replacing a Culture of Corruption with a Culture of Caligula. Marc Dann and his cronies seemed to have set up shop in such a way as to create a hostile work environment for women – something no progressive in their right mind would ignore or accept. That’s the real story. We were promised professionalism and ethical behavior. We got neither. The reason the media and the public has such a hair trigger is that we just suffered through 16 years of corruption and unethical behavior at the hands of the Republicans. Pardon us if we don’t immediately begin to hand out benefits of doubt to the very person who was to be cleaning up the place!

The individual sex acts are the icing on the media cake. The substance of the matter is that Dann was elected to rid us of poor statewide office cultures. He pounded on it time and time and time again. The media was there for just about every morsel Dann fed us. Brian now thinks it’s silly that they want to cover this story now that the white knight of culture cleanse has embroiled himself in scandal? You almost have to laugh knowing he thinks nothing of the sort. Which is why his post is so surprising.

Can you argue that all of this media claptrap is distracting us from the real issues Ohioans need to be facing? You sure can. Who should one blame for this distraction?

Marc Dann.

Can you argue that there are other “zipper scandals in a post-Eliot Spitzer world”? You sure can. But who is the Attorney General of the STATE OF OHIO?

Marc Dann.

Shining the light on the misdeeds of others is not an acceptable form of argument for those who have erred. Ask my daughters. They don’t get away with. Why should Marc Dann? I’m surprised this argument is even made. It’s laughable in it’s inability to explain away the problems in Marc Dann’s AG’s Office. It’s also laughable as a form of argument against too much media coverage. Is anyone REALLY shocked that the Ohio press corps is paying more attention to Marc Dann than Kwame Kilpatrick or Jim Gibbons? Come on!

Has Marc and his office done some good things for Ohio? Sure thing. I believe many bloggers have made this point over and over again. The problem is that there is a list of political blunders, bad decisions, mismanagement, and poor leadership to go along with all the good. It’s a real shame that those successes are overshadowed and future ones are at risk due to what has transpired. Who do we blame for all of that?

Marc Dann.

Are there things that we should be hearing more about over the noise of DannGate? Uh huh. It might be good for blog traffic, readership of newspapers, and ratings of TV shows, but ask any progressive minded person and they’ll tell you they’d rather be talking about something else. Most especially with a presidential election coming up in a state we know we’ll have to deliver. Nobody likes this.

So we can wax poetic about the media’s desire for salacious news coverage and the inability to break through to talk about things that really matter to the lives of Ohioans. You can argue that these distractions are what is damaging. What you can’t argue is whose fault it is. The answer to that question is quite simple:

Dann, Dann, Dann!

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