Media Target McCain To Help Obama
By Cliff Kincaid
February 22, 2008
The New York Times vs. John McCain controversy is becoming the subject of endless stories and fodder for the talking heads on television. This story has overtones of sex, even though the paper offered no hard evidence that McCain was involved romantically with a female lobbyist.
The names of four reporters are on the Times' McCain story, with two others identified as contributors. Many hours were obviously devoted to it. But I can find nothing in the Times analyzing the passage of senator and presidential candidate Barack Obama's $845 billion Global Poverty Act (S. 2433). Why have they not gotten around to reporting on this? Obama, after all, is a candidate, too. Have they been too busy trying to track down rumors about McCain?
One of the criticisms of the Times story about McCain is that it is speculative. There is no question, however, that McCain is surrounded by and has relationships with lobbyists, and that is a legitimate issue. By the same token, Obama has been surrounded by socialists, and, as AIM recently disclosed, (web site) was mentored by a known member of the Communist Party. But this is not an issue for the Times or any other liberal news organization.
The failure to cover the passage of the Obama poverty bill demonstrates what is wrong with so much of the media these days. It can be tedious to research and write about legislation. It is more exciting to pant after a politician's sex life, especially when that politician is a Republican. Plus, the Global Poverty Act has a noble purpose, and most reporters probably want to see it passed. They would rather keep the American people in the dark about what it would actually cost. By keeping the process free of public scrutiny, the media may ultimately succeed in getting the bill passed by the full Senate and even signed by President Bush. Then the media will proclaim it all to be a victory for Obama and it will be too late to do anything about the horrendous costs and implications of the legislation.
The passage of the Obama bill is far more important than McCain's sex life. Indeed, a Texas State Senator named Kirk Watson recently made a fool of himself by failing to come up with any examples of Senator Barack Obama's legislative accomplishments when he was on an MSNBC program hosted by Chris Mathews. It was "Stump the Chump," Watson later joked. But both Watson and Matthews seemed not to know that Obama, in fact, had just scored a major accomplishment. His Global Poverty Act commits the U.S. to fulfilling the Millennium Development Goals of the United Nations through a global tax if necessary.
Why the media black-out on this bill? Is this not something we should begin talking about? After all, it's on the verge of passing the full Senate and becoming law.
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