‘Will the haircut-obsessed political media cover it?’

May 12, 2007

If a Republican presidential candidate snubs some working-class farmers, and the media doesn’t report it, does it really make a sound?

When Greg Sargent first noted on Thursday that Rudy Giuliani’s campaign cancelled an event at Deb and Jerry VonSprecken’s family farm because they’re not millionaires, he asked in his first paragraph, “[W]ill the haircut-obsessed political media cover it?”

I’ve been wondering the same thing. The blogs have been all over this story, and I’ve heard that John McCain’s campaign has been sending information out to its email lists, but how’s the coverage been in the traditional media?

Based on searches on Lexis-Nexis and Google News, it seems the political establishment doesn’t care. I found one article — in the Des Moines Register, which presumably appreciated the local angle.

That’s it. The story hasn’t been mentioned in any of the major dailies, the wires, or on any national TV broadcasts.

C’mon, assignment editors, this is an easy one.

Ana Marie Cox noted yesterday that Giuliani “could’ve probably gotten away with tap-dancing his way through the abortion issue, but I somehow don’t think any campaign — R or D — could weather this.” It’s actually pretty easy when the media blows it off.

The dog that didn’t bark. This story illustrates perfectly the way in which the media responds to, and in this case, does not respond to the amplification of stories by rightwing noise machine.

  • Even the Des Moines Register was a full 36 hrs behind the blogs (and the small hometown press of the VonSprecken’s). And the way the Register piece was written almost joked and made light of the situation. But I suspect it will get around in the rural Repub caucus-goers circles. This stuff doesn’t play well in the midwest.

  • The corporate media is just following the Reagan Doctrine: never speak ill of another Republican. Watch for nothing but Democrat-bashing and stories about puppies in the coming days. That’s all they’ll have to offer as long as they want to keep collecting their paychecks.

    What, too harsh? Ask a certain general who just got kicked to the curb by a major network for daring to say bad things about Dear Leader Bush. If that doesn’t make it crystal clear, I don’t know what will.

  • Besides the lack of media coverage, another reason Giuliani might survive this is that its all relative. The Republicans don’t necessarily have anyone better.

    Lets say Giuliani’s campaign should be shot down by this. Then there’s John McCain who is accurately portrayed as a joke in another recent post here. We also have Mitt Romney taking John Edwards’ place as the Breck Girl.

    Then there’s all the actual policy positions they guy shave which should disqualify them from being serous contenders for President.

    With this sort of competition, they can all remain viable candidates for the nomination because nobody stands out. It’s not as if they did anything really awful like wind surfing. 🙂

    Hopefully this sort of stuff will catch up with them in the general election campaign.

  • Republican spurning a farmer without a cool million in net worth?
    Dog bites man story if ever I heard one.

    What I want to know is why John McCain didn’t ask if the family would accept him in Mr. Giuliani’s stead?
    Offer the farmers a chance to save face, introduce himself and be a little something of a hero. Romney could have too, but McCain actually noticed but didn’t see the obvious score.

    Are they all so busy collecting checks they can’t be troubled with the free press tghis would have produced?

    Would Richardson or Gravel liek to stop by and ask if they’d like to reconsider a party that values even us six-figure-and-below folks?

  • Republican spurning a farmer without a cool million in net worth?
    Dog bites man story if ever I heard one.

    What I want to know is why John McCain didn’t ask if the family would accept him in Mr. Giuliani’s stead?
    Offer the farmers a chance to save face, introduce himself and be a little something of a hero. Romney could have too, but McCain actually noticed but didn’t see the obvious score.

    Are they all so busy collecting checks they can’t be troubled with the free press this would have produced?

    Would Richardson or Gravel like to stop by and ask if they’d like to reconsider a party that values even us six-figure-and-below folks?

  • What I want to know is why John McCain didn’t ask if the family would accept him in Mr. Giuliani’s stead?
    Offer the farmers a chance to save face, introduce himself and be a little something of a hero. Romney could have too, but McCain actually noticed but didn’t see the obvious score.

    Then there’s all the actual policy positions they guy shave which should disqualify them from being serous contenders for President.

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