comment #1

BNick says ...

This sounds exactly like something that someone who only watches Keith Olbermann would say, so I have no doubt she's being sincere.

But how can anyone who watched the media anoint Obama in the primaries (from at least December to March) complain that journalists are out to get him. Am I missing something? Is McCain getting glowing coverage? Bacall certainly wouldn't this so if all she watches is Olbermann.

comment #2

Ponderer says ...

Of COURSE McCain gets glowing coverage, it's that no one reports on matters of real interest don't get reported upon because the media LOVES McCain. Reporters serve him boxes of donuts and then write demonstrably untrue articles about Obama (this is documented). McCain and spouse don't pay taxes on their beach home for four years, but it appears absolutely nowhere. Obama supposedly denies a kid a fist bump because it might have those "terrorist fist bump" connotations - which was erroneously reported in any case - and the media runs with it for DAYS before a few churlish reactions filter down.

Where's all the digging into McCain's history? Who explains how someone who graduated from his military class 883rd out of 887th got the most prime assignment that you can possibly get, that of fighter pilot? It's impossible to get that with McCain's class status unless you have someone pulling major strings. (We won't even talk about the multiple planes he crashed subsequently, which just back up his utter incompetence.) And yet, it's Obama-as-elitist meme that gets all the play.

How about McCain robbing the public blind with the scandal of the Keating Five? Anyone hear anything about that lately? No, we just hear about overheated preachers in pulpits, not about senior citizens who had their life savings shredded, in no small part due to the corruption of Long John McCain.

So as they say, bitch PLEASE. McCain's coverage is provably and fawningly favorable in comparison to Obama, and if you disagree with this, I wish you well and I bid you adieu from my comfortable location in the, uh, fact-based universe.

comment #3

nemo says ...

Free food and liquor for the press. That's how McCain does it. Obama should give it a try.

comment #4

supertaster says ...

I have as much faith that I'm getting the whole story when watching 'Countdown' as I would if the reigns had just been handed over to a 16 year old pimping his friend for student council. It's sixty minutes of cheerleading.

Anyone who watches it and thinks they are being informed enough to crystalize an opinion or stance is WORSE, in my opinion, than the most ignorant 5000-year-old-earth-believing appalachian. Whereas the latter is just plain ignorant, the former, more educated, MSNBC watcher is willfully ignorant. Listening to someone who watches MSNBC exclusively (and believe me, it becomes apparent within 5 minutes) try to explain a position is kind of like, I imagine, listening to a vegan explain how to cook a steak (philisophical issues aside)...

comment #5

K. Bowen says ...

Obama fans getting upset about his media coverage. And praising Keith Olbermann as the only legitimate news source. Oh my.

comment #6

Discman says ...

When faced with a 180 on the issue they most care about from the candidate they believed was the only one who could effect that change, Obama-heads like Jeffrey find a Lauren Bacall soundbite excoriating the media. Must be the media's fault that Obama said what he said.

As for the media liking McCain, yes, they like him. He gives them as close to full access to a candidate as any presidential candidate ever has. Obama doesn't. He's afraid of the media, as are most presidential candidates, Republican and Democrat alike. If you were a reporter, you'd like McCain, too, because he makes your job a little easier by providing real answers to on-the-fly questions. Reporters like that. Go figure.

So, just remember that the Obama-Is-Divine bloggers like Jeffrey are having to face the reality that this guy is just another politician, leaving them behind on all the issue they care most about.

comment #7

Joe Leydon says ...

Lauren Bacall is a goddess. So, of course, she would watch Olbermann, and vote for Obama.

comment #8

Ponderer says ...

It has nothing to do with Obama being divine or flawless or any other crap. It has to do with McCain masterfully blowing smoke up everyone's ass with his perpetually-phony veneer of openness. How many times does McCain have to dish out flat out lies - lies which are caught on frigging videotape - before someone in the media calls him on it?

Ah well, it doesn't matter to the brainwashed McCainheads. If Obama had abandoned his disfigured wife for a beer heiress, he wouldn't gotten anywhere near a run for the presidency. But hey, let's all obsess about whether or not Obama has the goddamn flag pin.

comment #9

Mr. Muckle says ...

You want to study good photography? Watch how they make that decrepit cheeseball McCain look halfway decent in his TV ads. Amazing. Lauren Bacall is and has always been the real shiznit. Great looking dame in her time.

comment #10

Mgmax says ...

I'm going to crochet Ponderer's rant and frame it on my parlor wall. Damn rightwing media, always favoring rightwingers! Why can't a poor black Senator get a break?

comment #11

Mgmax says ...

"We won't even talk about the multiple planes he crashed subsequently, which just back up his utter incompetence."

"How about McCain robbing the public blind with the scandal of the Keating Five?"

"If Obama had abandoned his disfigured wife for a beer heiress, he wouldn't gotten anywhere near a run for the presidency."

So I guess the optimistic hope and change part of this election is over, and we're into the kick the POW's dick into the dirt phase.

comment #12

va says ...

and I am supposed to give a flying **** what Lauren Bacall has to say about anything other than Bogie because......?

comment #13

Ponderer says ...

"So I guess the optimistic hope and change part of this election is over, and we're into the kick the POW's dick into the dirt phase."

First of all, great job - practiced and neat - of avoiding the content in my assertions. Very Fox-worthy.

I have great respect for the pain he suffered as a POW. Who has respect for the senior citizens whose final years he helped destroy?

All five of the Keating Five - Alan Cranston, Dennis DeConcini, John Glenn, Donald Riegle, and McCain - should have been, at best, drummed out of public service in disgrace.

And let's not bring up the POW crap anymore. Ross Perot may be a cantakerous old coot, but POWS never had a better friend than he. He was a champion and personal friend of McCain for many years after his return. And he's accused McCain of betraying both his first wife and the entire POW cause. So if we're going bring up the past, let's bring up all the past.

As for hope...well, as Theodore Roosevelt said, 'You may disappoint your enemies by the moderation and reasonableness of your conduct.' That's what Obama does, and I'm proud of him for rising above the anger of the mob. But I'm an angry young man, I don't have the responsibility of representing the people, and so I subscribe to his quote, 'The unforgivable crime is soft hitting. Do not hit at all if it can be avoided; but never hit softly.'

And I don't intend to pull my punches.

comment #14

quitstaringatme says ...

It's not that Obama is getting more negative attention from the press, he's getting ALL the attention. This election is about whether or not you're voting for Obama, the republican is basically incidental. Obama is the star, whether you hate him or want to blow him.

It's just a shame he's not the political messiah the left kept trying to tell me he was.

comment #15

MovieBob says ...

Sigh...

"The liberal media hates Bush, but all I listen to is Fox and WE love him!"

"The conservative media hates Obama, but all I listen to is MSNBC and WE love him!"

This is the end of American political journalism's long-dying but once-revered reputation for objectivity. By the end of this cycle, we'll just have a less-refined-accent version of the fracking British press... "right-wing" papers read by "right-wing" readers, "left wing" papers read by "left-wing" readers, each one utterly convinced that the other is lying, neither inclined to seek "truth" beyond what helps or hinders the overall cause. Bill O'Reilly and Keith Olberman, Rush Limbaugh and Al Franken. Two flocks of sheep at "war."

comment #16

LYT says ...

A T-shirt I think Jeffrey will like...

http://www.cafepress.com/politiclothes.227580505

comment #17

Mr. Muckle says ...

Have you seen that picture of McCain getting pulled out of that lake by the villagers after his plane got shot down? You tell me any place in America where some guy bombs a town FOR ANY DAMN REASON EVEN JUSTIFIED BY WAR and that guy gets shot down and then doesn't get killed within five minutes by the first citizen who gets there, and I"ll tell you you're living a fairy tale. It's a damn miracle McCain's still alive and he ought to be thankful for it, shut up, and go home.

comment #18

Terry McCarty says ...

I love Bacall the actress as much as the next person, but didn't she blink and back down along with Bogie at request of the Hollywood Powers-That-Were after attending the HUAC hearings in Washington D.C. in support of the Hollywood Ten?

Was reminded of this when seeing the TRUMBO documentary earlier today and seeing a photo of them attending the hearings.

comment #19

BNick says ...

Ponderer,

I'll concede that McCain got glowing media coverage in the primaries in 2000 and 2008, partially because he was running against candidates (Bush & Romney) that the media didn't really want to see win.

But the favoritism, indeed any attention whatsoever, went out the window the minute Obama became his opponent. McCain doesn't even get coverage unless he massacres a teleprompter speech (see the NYTimes today) or has a "senior moment".

On the Keating Five stuff, I think McCain gets a pass because he's basically done a 180 and devoted his life to rooting out corruption in government and fighting for better and cleaner campaigns. Granted he's often been an imperfect champion on these issues but he's pissed enough people off and gone it alone often enough to have regained his credibility.

And I think on the POW stuff, it's not so much that he got shot down and was held prisoner for 5 years that people are impressed by. It's that he refused to be released while the rest of his men were still being held captive. That shows a certain character that people want in a president.

comment #20

Mgmax says ...

BNick, what's the point.

It's obvious that the very people who cry the loudest for "change" and "hope" are the ones who will take this to the dirtiest gutter the fastest.

We could have an election about two intelligent candidates with different views of government's role, foreign policy, etc. Instead we're going to hear about McCain's marriage, war record, any dirt they can dish up.

Depressing, depressing, depressing.

When [Colonel Bud Day] was recaptured, a Vietnamese captor broke his arm and said, "I told you I would make you a cripple." The break was designed to shatter Mr. Day's will. He had survived in prison on the hope that one day he would return to the United States and be able to fly again. To kill that hope, the Vietnamese left part of a bone sticking out of his arm, and put him in a misshapen cast. This was done so that the arm would heal at "a goofy angle," as Mr. Day explained. Had it done so, he never would have flown again.

But it didn't heal that way because of John McCain. Risking severe punishment, Messrs. McCain and Day collected pieces of bamboo in the prison courtyard to use as a splint. Mr. McCain put Mr. Day on the floor of their cell and, using his foot, jerked the broken bone into place. Then, using strips from the bandage on his own wounded leg and the bamboo, he put Mr. Day's splint in place. Years later, Air Force surgeons examined Mr. Day and complimented the treatment he'd gotten from his captors. Mr. Day corrected them. It was Dr. McCain who deserved the credit. Mr. Day went on to fly again.

How about a little respect for a man who has faced things most of us would find unimaginable. How about a little class.

comment #21

SpinDozer says ...

"This is the end of American political journalism's long-dying but once-revered reputation for objectivity."

If you just attacked Fox News, some right-winger would be sure to point out the difference between "commentators" and reporting done by journalists.

"Bill O'Reilly and Keith Olberman, Rush Limbaugh and Al Franken. Two flocks of sheep at "war."

So you comp O'Reilly with Olberman. Fair enough, at least as far as audience ratings, tho obviously not in terms of factual content. Comping Limbaugh to Franken is a bit of a reach though, Franken hasn't broadcast in sometime, and when he did, it was on something called 'Air America'; I'm not thinking that Limbaugh's distribution was anywhere near that constricted. And, beyond that, you left off the dozens of all-right wing commentators distributed across the broadcast spectrum...supposedly to balance the "liberalism" of traditional journalism, useful if you want to frame the debate in such a way as to have topics discussed from a RW point of view, but nothing else.

comment #22

George Prager says ...

You know what song I can't get out of my head today? The theme song from "Spies Like Us." Easily the low point of Paul McCartney's career.

comment #23

Ponderer says ...

"How about a little respect for a man who has faced things most of us would find unimaginable. How about a little class."

Suffering is horrible, Doing service for your country is the noblest calling (my dad was a veteran of Korea). Suffering in the name of duty is worthy of the highest respect.

But it is NOT a pass to sainthood, and it is not a pass to look the other way during acts of corruption, and it is NOT a pass to destroy, say, the lives of old people and their hard-won savings.

I pity you if you think it is. Someone who has suffered for our country should not only be held up to the highest level of respect, but also be assumed to possess the highest level of integrity. Not telling other senators to "go fuck yourself" right on the Senate floor.

Oh yeah, you were talking about class and not rolling around in the dirt.
\

comment #24

Ponderer says ...

"You know what song I can't get out of my head today? The theme song from "Spies Like Us." Easily the low point of Paul McCartney's career."

Second lowest. Nothing can approach the execrable wonderment of 'Ebony and Ivory,' of course.

comment #25

George Prager says ...

Yeah, Ebony and Ivory sucks, but something about Spies Like Us is so depressing. Maybe it's just the year it came out, 1985, possibly the worst year in the history of movies.

comment #26

Ponderer says ...

Yeah, I'll give you that - it is thoroughly depressing, and not just because of the reasons you stated, but it was so bad that McCartney couldn't cadge up a pop hit from that point after.

Of course, as the resident McCartney apologist, I'm happy to note that he would have at least three really good solo albums after that, but still, Spies goes down as the song that destroyed his pop invulnerability. When you consider that he'd maintained that since 1963, you realize: THAT is one bad song.

comment #27

George Prager says ...

Spies Like Us was the end of an era. "Classic Rock" stations began around the same time. Rock became the music of showbiz, of TV commercials and muzak.

comment #28

Terry McCarty says ...

George Prager wrote:
1985, possibly the worst year in the history of movies.

The year of PRIZZI'S HONOR and KISS OF THE SPIDER WOMAN, though.

comment #29

BNick says ...

How can anyone call 1985 the worst year in the history of movies when it gave us Rocky IV, the movie the ended the Cold War?

comment #30

George Prager says ...

And RE-ANIMATOR is from 1985! Okay, I'll rephrase it: the worst year for major studio Hollywood movies.

comment #31

dangovich says ...

How about a little respect for a man who has faced things most of us would find unimaginable. How about a little class.

comment #32

D.Z. says ...

Ponderer: "(We won't even talk about the multiple planes he crashed subsequently, which just back up his utter incompetence.) "

I've been thinking it's ironic that a guy who lost Vietnam thinks he can win another lost cause.

Discman: "As for the media liking McCain, yes, they like him. He gives them as close to full access to a candidate as any presidential candidate ever has. Obama doesn't."

Yes, Johnny's so charming making jokes about beating his wife...

Mgmax: "So I guess the optimistic hope and change part of this election is over, and we're into the kick the POW's dick into the dirt phase."

You're right. We should be busy arguing about whether Kerry got shot hard enough in the arm in Vietnam.

"How about a little respect for a man who has faced things most of us would find unimaginable. How about a little class."

You don't seem to have respect for random Arabs being picked up off the street and being given the same treatment at Gitmo...

Bnick: "Granted he's often been an imperfect champion on these issues but he's pissed enough people off and gone it alone often enough to have regained his credibility."

Except when he took 25 years to apologize for being against a Martin Luther King, Jr. holiday...

"It's that he refused to be released while the rest of his men were still being held captive. That shows a certain character that people want in a president."

Except now he throws his fellow vets under the bus by screwing them out of a better G.I. Bill...

comment #33

BNick says ...

Well that's just it, isn't it, dangovich? McCain wasn't on the front line of those attacks on Kerry and Cleland. I think he may have even spoken out against the Kerry attacks at the time. (Now, of course, John "I wanted McCain as my VP" Kerry is throwing his buddy under the bus, saying he lacks the judgment to lead. Classy move.)

If McCain can't succeed in distancing his own brand from that of the GOP, which has as bad a reputation now as it possibly ever has had, he can't win.

comment #34

D.Z. says ...

BNick: "McCain wasn't on the front line of those attacks on Kerry and Cleland. I think he may have even spoken out against the Kerry attacks at the time."

Now he's working with the same people who swift-boated Kerry.

"Now, of course, John "I wanted McCain as my VP" Kerry is throwing his buddy under the bus, saying he lacks the judgment to lead."

That's not the same as questioning his service.

comment #35

Mgmax says ...

The definition of class is NOT using the other side's behavior as an excuse to lower your own.

comment #36

Ponderer says ...

Class is expecting people to honorably meet the standards they represent. This includes avoiding self-admitted adultery while in uniform, which is a violation of the Uniform Code of Military Justice. Too bad facts and honor don't matter to people like Mgmax.

Speaking of class, here's my favorite quote from the ultra classy John McCain:

Q: Why is Chelsea Clinton so ugly? A: Her father is Janet Reno.

This, of course, was when Chelsea was a 17-year-old girl.

Class-y.

"In the late 1980's, McCain became one of the "Keating Five." Some have noted that this sounds like a band. And to the extent that taking payoffs from corrupt savings and loans officials, passing legislation that deregulated the industry and destroyed thousands of lives, and intervening in the investigation of said corrupt savings and loan officials is like playing music, then, yes, they were a band. A very good one."

comment #37

D.Z. says ...

Mgmax: "The definition of class is NOT using the other side's behavior as an excuse to lower your own."

So then why-whenever their behavior is frowned upon- does the Republican party like to say, "But Clinton did it, too!"?

comment #38

Dave Polands Gut says ...

I guess Bacall has been living under a rock the past 40 years thinking that the mainstream media doesn't have an agenda and an objective