- Share This Post
- Pin It
- 9
-
Sparkle (0)
“Today, in an effort to expand his base of political support, Republican presidential candidate Rudy Giuliani announced that he will sell cocaine on his official online campaign store. In a speech today in New Hampshire, Giuliani explained "this product has helped me overcome my stupidity and allow me to pronounce absolutely insane things with confidence. I want to share this magic with the people. I do not allow anyone who passes a drug test to work on my campaign, nor should you. Also, we need to go to war with the moon, it is attempting to shift Daylight Savings Time and encroach on our glorious, edible soil." Campaign staff attempted to reach out to Bobby Brown for an endorsement, but Brown responded that "even I am not that insane...and I married Whitney Houston."
Ok, that’s Surfer Girl blogging. But it took you a minute to catch on, eh? For such a staunch conservative, Giuliani is extremely liberal with the truth. I’m sick of it. Hillary Clinton may dodge the truth, but she doesn’t ignore it. And the press is on her like a hawk. She’d never get away with the coverage Giuliani gets away with: what would have happened if Rudy gave the same answer to Tim Russert’s question in last night's Dem debate about driver’s licenses and immigrants in NY State(see Kate Sheppard at Tapped). A few years ago, Rudy might have agreed with NY Governor Spitzer, but now, he’d probably say we should round up illegal drivers and send them to a camp in New Jersey.
This morning on NPR, a reporter played a New Hampshire voter’s fawning clip about Rudy Giuliani (“he’s able to make fun of himself, he’s a real person”) as opposed to Romney (“he’s so slick…I don’t trust him”). Quote selection influences listeners' votes. Last week I went to a political horse race panel and all the influential, big time journalists and pundits were expressing wonder at Giuliani’s campaign-- “disciplined,” “Hard-hitting,” “went out in front and won the news cycle.”
If Rudy Giuliani becomes president of the US, America will go up in smoke within three years. But the press loves the guy. My husband said, “I can’t believe the press is star-fu**ing Giuliani like this. This is what they did to Bush in 2000 and look where we are now.”
I’m not a journalist. I am not a media watchdog or a critic of journalistic practice. But I do ask you to listen critically to media coverage of Giuliani. Listen to the quotes from voters they select to speak. How do they frame him against others? How do journalists frame any candidate against others? (Click here for Chris Matthews and Rudy).
We’ve indeed been here before. Now, Al Gore is the much-admired “Goreacle,” but during the 2000 campaign, journalists spurned Gore for Bush, a failed loser who was fun, charming, and great to have a beer with. An October article in
Vanity Fair sparked a conversation among journalists, urging them to examine the critical way they covered Gore. Evgenia Peretz writes,
“Eight years ago, in the bastions of the "liberal media" that were supposed to love Gore—The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Boston Globe, CNN—he was variously described as "repellent," "delusional," a vote-rigger, a man who "lies like a rug," "Pinocchio." Eric Pooley, who covered him for Time magazine, says, "He brought out the creative-writing student in so many reporters.… Everybody kind of let loose on the guy."
How did this happen? Was the right-wing attack machine so effective that it overwhelmed all competing messages? Was Gore's communications team outrageously inept? Were the liberal elite bending over backward to prove they weren't so liberal?”
And all too often, voters give Giuliani’s flip flopping a pass because he is seen as the only one who can beat Hillary, as Dana writes:
“In the back of my mind, I can't help but think that perhaps the GOP believes that Rudy Giuliani is the only candidate who can debate against Hillary, and therefore Brownback might endorse him to boost the former mayor's electabilty [sic].”
Dana, I don't think it's in the back of your mind. I think it's deliberate spin from the GOP powers that be, and the media's bought it, by and large. Is this perhaps what the media hopes for too? And is this why they put on rose colored glasses when it comes to Rudy?
I’ll be listening more carefully now. The press shapes voter opinions. I'm a blogger: I can rant and
