On Thursday, I linked Richard Grenell’s piece on the legacy media’s fixation on Mitt Romney’s supposed gaffes on his trip abroad. That former John Bolton aide reported that various “news” outlets dispatched political reporters (more familiar with the ups and downs of political campaigns) than foreign correspondents (more familiar with policy questions) to cover the presumptive Republican nominee’s trip to Europe. Perhaps, that’s why those folks focused on the gaffes and not the substance:
Had news outlets sent their State Department or United Nations reporters on Mitt Romney’s trip abroad, the coverage would have been smarter and more informed than the petty political reporting the American public received from the ones who went on the trip. The next time a news outlet complains about the state of our political rhetoric or the uninformed U.S. voter , we should promptly point them to the video of Ashley Parker’s raucous in a Polish cemetery or Philip Rucker’s diatribes on party invitations.
It wasn’t just that their coverage was focused more on the gaffes than the substance, but that it was skewed as John Hinderaker reports:
The Media Research Center analyzed the news coverage of Romney’s trip and concluded that an astonishing 86% of network news stories focused on Romney’s supposed “gaffes.” If you watched the video of “reporters” from the New York Times, Washington Post and CNN heckling Romney in Poland, you don’t need a scorecard to know which presidential campaign they are trying to boost.
Sometimes, it seems that when it comes to Republicans, our friends at the New York Times, Washington Post, CNN et al. aren’t interested in reporting the news, but crafting a narrative. And I’m far from the first to say that.
Again, the tactic is: deflection. Or equivalently, projection. Obama is the most amateur-ish, gaffe-prone president in living memory. So much so, that HotAir has had a column now for years, “Obamateurism of the Week” – with several items to discuss, every week. Therefore, the Left *must* create a “Romney is gaffe-prone” narrative – in order to deflect attention from Obama, and possibly even to lie to themselves about Obama.
I didn’t realize the MSM had sent political reporters rather than foreign correspondents. I am not sure that doing the opposite would help. Remember how the UNited Nations reporters treated John Bolten? They obviously loathed and despised him. They are no more balanced than our political reporters. Christian Amonpour? Reporters have been carrying water for the Dems all my life. My first presidential vote was for Reagan in 1980…. Remember that right up to the election reporters denied that “that idiot actor” Reagan could possibly defeat the “brilliant” Carter. So no matter what reporter gets sent they will always cover for the Dem while magnifying every possible gaffe of the Republican. SOP for theMSM. Fortunately, we now have other outlets for information and theMSM can be dragged kicking and screaming to report on Obama gaffes like “you didn’t build that”. Huge advantage that we didn’t have 10 years ago. Not to mention citizens who also document events!
How would MSNBC have reported on JFK’s ‘Ich bin ein Berliner’ speech?
Or Reagan’s ‘Tear down this wall’?
Since MSNBC is such a bastion of left-wing lunacy, it would be interesting to see how they would have reconciled these historic statements of both great statesmen with their slobbering love affair with murderous communist tyrants.
Walter Duranty, call your office…
I might be the only one to notice, given MSNBC’s dismal ratings, that Grenell was a guest on what I like to call “The Mister Ed Show” (remember Mister Ed was a talking horse, not far from the current host) last week. It must have been his first time on the tube, since it looked like a nice loud “BOO” would have sent him to the ceiling, but he had several good points, many of which were in his article.