Well, at least you know where MSNBC and NBC stand on this whole DNC "civil war" going on between the regular folks and the crazed Hillary fans — the stations are firmly planted on the side of sensationalist journalism. While Republicans and Democrats are expected to snipe at each other during election time, the media at this convention locked eyes with a contingent of Dems who believe Hillary Clinton should have won the nomination and are threatening to vote for McCain come election time. Even NBC's political director Chuck Todd spoke out against the station spending all its hard-earned Denver drinking money covering the PUMAs (that's Party Unity My Ass), the particular anti-Obama group composed mainly of middle-aged white women, who receive a disproportionate amount of coverage based on their small numbers.
This is the political equivalent of Elisabeth Hasselbeck making those statements about Jeffrey Dahmer and bologna sandwiches; not everyone who likes processed meats is also a serial killer, and only a small, small percentage of people who voted for Hillary Clinton are running around the convention like Star Wars fans at Comic-Con. But since PUMAs are the most, uh, colorful turnouts of the event so far, and since nothing actually happens at the national conventions except network in-fighting, you can bet there is going to be a disproportionate amount of coverage on the crazy cat ladies. CONTINUED »
During all that hoopla in the late 90s about our then-prez and his cigar-loving intern, did you ever stop and think, "Yes, that makes sense, Monica looked just like Bill's grandma?" Well, too bad you never tried to copyright your thought hombre, because someone just went ahead and made a biography on the bigger Clinton, and it focuses on some the more Freudian (read: salient) details of Bill's personal life. No wonder, the book was written by John Hopkin's (assistant) professor and psychologist John D. Gartner, who apparently delves into the Alpha-males brain for a living. Among the myriad of claims that In Search of Bill Clinton: A Psychological Biography makes (all without support of the Clintons, since Gartner was never able to reach them for comment), there exists some of these gems:
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The Atlantic's Joshua Green spits out his 6,000-word report on the Clinton campaign fall out, but only after sifting through hundreds of emails drenched in vitriol. [The Atlantic]
Things could get sticky at this month’s Democratic national convention!
Senator Hillary Clinton told supporters that she would not rule out having her pledged delegates heard at the nominating event, which should be all about Barack Obama.
During an ABC News interview in Liberia yesterday, Bill Clinton got "a little testy" with a reporter, as he is wont to do these days. She asked him if he had any regrets about anything he did while he was campaigning for Hillary Clinton. He said he does, but not the ones we think, which tells me he's probably still in denial about how he might have damaged his wife's campaign.
Perhaps rightfully so, John McCain is not happy with the way the media is going on about Barack Obama's overseas trip, while his domestic goings-on are covered as mere blips on the news cycle radar.
With all three evening news anchors in attendance, as well as the upper echelon of the press corps, Obama's trip is being chronicled endlessly in newspapers and on television, with pictures coming back to the U.S. of Obama meeting with senior military leaders in Iraq and Afghanistan. McCain, meanwhile, is shown palling around in a golf cart with George H.W. Bush.
The difference in treatment has "irked" the McCain camp. While McCain used to refer to the media as his "base," he's now sees a climate where the press is bending over backward for his opponent and leaving him in the proverbial dust. So what's a guy to do?
Complain.
Except, as we've seen before, that isn't the best strategy. CONTINUED »
"Unfortunately I have found out that many viewers are afraid of change. The glory days of TV news are over, and the media landscape has been dramatically changed. News is available now for everyone, everywhere, all the time, and everybody fights for the last pieces of the shrinking pie. The corporate pressure and the ratings terror are intensifying all the time, and the situation is not simple. I find myself in the last bastion of male dominance, and realizing what Hillary Clinton might have realized not long ago: that sexism in the American society is more common than racism, and certainly more acceptable or forgivable. In any case, I think my post and Hillary's race are important steps in the right direction." — Katie Couric, to Israeli paper Haaretz
CNBC has been having a one Howard Glaser on the air to talk about the mortgage meltdown, and how the federal government is stepping in to bank roll Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae so the entire nation's economy doesn't nose dive any farther. CNBC introduced him as a "mortgage industry consultant." CNBC did not introduce him as a paid consultant to Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae, which he is. That type of thing is what some in this biz refer to as a "conflict of interest." (The network says it wasn't aware of the relationship. Glaser says his fee from the big banks doesn't influence his on-air analysis. Right.)
Add to MSNBC's focus today on Hillary Clinton's new hairdo — "they would never talk about a guy's haircut" we imagine someone screaming — and NBC's cable networks are ratcheting up a whole slew of sticking points for the conservative blogs to get their jazz hands on.
With more than $20 million in debt still yet to be paid off, Hillary Clinton will do anything to get supporters to throw money at her campaign, even though her campaign's only purpose right now is to, uh, pay off her debts.
Barack Obama is doing his part, asking supporters to send her a cheque. Now, Hillary has moved on to gimmicks.
In exchange for sending a $50 contribution sent her way, Clinton will ship you one of these "limited edition" tees. The gender-ambiguous silhouette there at the bottom? A subtle reminder that pantsuits work for any body type. [Swamp]
Sound familiar? Indeed: Back when John Kerry bungled the Democratic party's hope for the White House, he also left his campaign with 3 million people on his listserv. Guess who's still worth talking to so he can press the forward button on your fundraising drive? Though Politico doesn't say how big Clinton's email list is, she does have 158,000 “supporters” on Facebook and more than 191,000 “friends” on MySpace. Maybe they'll even post her iPod playlist. [Politico]
Having waged a war against a cable news network that was supposed to have been an ally, Hillary Clinton campaign strategist Howard Wolfson is signing up with the enemy. Wolfson has inked a deal with Fox News where, like Karl Rove, he'll serve as a contributor, offering analysis to the right-y network that undoubtedly will work to support John McCain against Barack Obama. Wolfson certainly has ample reasoning to join up with FNC, if only because his days of working "with" MSNBC, which sided early with Team Obama, were hellish. And now that he's signing up with Fox News, he has even more pleasant words for Roger Ailes' network: "I thought that Fox’s coverage during the primary was comprehensive and fair and evenhanded. It’s a huge audience, and it is important to have a strong, progressive voice on the network." It'll also be important for him to have a soapbox to rail against Keith Olbermann and Chris Matthews, a favorite Fox News bloodsport. [NYT]
Just in time to plug her New Orleans memoir The House on First Street, Vogue political scribe Julia Reed has a nasty anecdote to share about Hillary Clinton's former campaign manager Howard Wolfson, who she describes as "the most charmless human being on the planet."
As you'll recall, Vogue tried penning a feature on Hillary, only to have her campaign cut off access; Anna Wintour wrote all about it in a February editor's letter after Reed wasted plenty of time "sitting there sucking up to" Wolfson trying to work something out. Wolfson's excuse to yanking his candidate? "We already have the women's vote in the bag," he told Reed. "We thought we were going to be in a bigger dogfight. We don't need you anymore." The rest, of course, is history.
Vote today in the National Organization for Women's "Media Hall of Shame: 2008 Election Edition." Don't let David Shuster or Cameron Cardow win against your pick! [ Jun 23, 2008 · posted by david · Link · Respond
Now that Sen. Hillary Clinton is squarely out of the running for president, it's the perfect time for the media, desperate for new angles for Dems v. Repubs election battle that's barely kicked into gear, to reflect on the very small, minute, seemingly impossible possibility that the press was unfair – some say sexist! – to the New York senator.
Are the charges of sexism merely sour grapes from women who feel disenfranchised now that the leader of all womynkind will not be president? Or are they legitimate charges against a group of good 'ole boys who were not only unfair to Clinton, but not exactly welcome to the idea that they were unfair?
In quizzing a swath of media types, the Times, like a bisexual couple at a swingers party, found it goes both ways: CONTINUED »
A smart software engineer is going to develop a nifty little application called, say, Favors, which tracks who's done nice things for you in the past, and who's totally screwed you over. But while we wait for Google Labs to churn that one out, we'll have the Web 1.0 version: Doug Band. He's the "chief gatekeeper" for Bill and Hillary Clinton, who diligently registers every time a constituent plays nice with the political power couple — and every time they're ignored or thrown under the bus. (You can imagine where Gov. Bill Richardson falls on this chart.)
Insists Hillary's campaign chairman Terry McAuliffe: "Revenge is not what the Clintons are about." That is, the list is about practicality, making it easier to pay special attention to your allies. And making sure folks like Chris Matthews, Vanity Fair's Todd Purdum, and Matt Drudge are never, ever given special treatment.
Now that Hillary Clinton has finally fulfilled Chris Matthews' year-long dream of exiting the race, it's time to make sense of all that was the 24-hour primary news cycle during the 16-month Barack v. Hillary battle. New York Knicks ticket policy violator and former NBC anchor Tom Brokaw has some thoughts: CONTINUED »
Did you hear that yesterday was historic? It was a day to remember! For eternity!
For the first time in the nation's history, a female contender for president … found herself without a hope in the world. Also: A black guy moved forward to a 1:2 shot in leading the country, so that's sort of worth mentioning too.
If you had seen the coverage in recent weeks and months, one might've thought that Hillary Clinton had been fighting an uphill battle, against the media and those naysayers, who had already declared the nomination for Barack. Except, uh, that wasn't really the case, Hil. Roll tape! (Scroll to about the 4:00 mark.)
Alternative headlines passed over by the tabs: "Victory!," "Definitively!," and "Finally!"
Joe Scarborough, returning to his morning slot on MSNBC today after taking a leave to attend to his wife's difficult pregnancy, reflecting on last night's historic events: "A night that nobody believed—but perhaps Barack Obama, Michelle Obama, and Chris Matthews—this was a night that very few people believed would ever happen." [Video here]
Like Entertainment Tonight prematurely announcing the birth of Angelina Jolie's twin babies (which if true, interestingly, would've made the babies premature), the Associated Press called Hillary Clinton's concession to Barack Obama too early. It didn't take her campaign even a half hour to announce, on The View and elsewhere, that the AP got it wrong. But the wire is standing by this unassailable fact: Obama has finally, for all intents and purposes, and two years after this whole campaigning business started, swept up the Democratic nomination.
But in the never-ending battle that is news media, not everyone is jumping on the AP's report: CONTINUED »
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