{"id":15368,"date":"2008-04-29T09:15:12","date_gmt":"2008-04-29T13:15:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com\/archives\/15368.html"},"modified":"2008-04-29T09:15:12","modified_gmt":"2008-04-29T13:15:12","slug":"when-the-media-buys-into-mccains-bogus-spin-again","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/when-the-media-buys-into-mccains-bogus-spin-again\/","title":{"rendered":"When the media buys into McCain’s bogus spin (again)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Yesterday, I suggested<\/a> it would be great if the media highlighted the DNC’s new “100 years” ad against John McCain, and the RNC’s baseless whining (and threats) about the ad. The more publicity this gets, the better.<\/p>\n

This national AP article<\/a>, however, is not what I had in mind.<\/p>\n

The Republican National Committee is demanding that television networks stop running a television ad by the Democratic Party that falsely suggests John McCain wants a 100-year war in Iraq.<\/p>\n

The ad says President Bush has talked about staying in Iraq for 50 years, then plays a clip of McCain saying, “Maybe 100. That’d be fine with me.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The ad “falsely suggests John McCain wants a 100-year war in Iraq”? No, it doesn’t. In fact, the DNC was extremely careful about the wording of the ad, precisely because it didn’t want to see plainly misleading articles like this one, based on Republican spin.<\/p>\n

As Josh Marshall put it<\/a>:<\/p>\n

[W]hat the McCain campaign is pushing for here is a standard in which any negative ad targeting McCain must be delivered with the McCain camp’s own spin included in order to be within bounds — a standard few politicians, to say the least, have ever been granted. And even though the political press has been highly indulgent of the McCain campaign on this issue, I don’t think I’ve seen any news organization so egregiously buy into McCain’s false statements as the Associated Press.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

In a case like this, the AP has three choices. First, and most preferably, it would report on the RNC’s complaint, and then explain to readers what’s true and why. Second is the he-said, she-said approach, in which the AP article would simply note the RNC’s attack, without fact-checking. And third is to accept the RNC’s bogus attack as fact, and report a lie as if it were true.<\/p>\n

The AP, for reasons that defy understanding, went with Door #3.
\n
\nJosh added:<\/p>\n

McCain’s position is miles away from where the American people are on Iraq. It’s no mystery why his campaign doesn’t want the Democrats to be harping on this point. But the AP doesn’t need to spin or fib on McCain’s behalf. <\/p>\n

Beyond all this there is still a simpler point. There is a way foreign policy questions are hashed out in quiet symposia and a way they are fought over in political campaigns. They are not the same. McCain and his surrogates are demanding something no one else gets: namely, the right to have their words repeated only in their fullest context and most generous, most amply spun interpretation. He wants his own set of rules, an election with a stacked deck. If the Democrats have any intention of winning this race, that’s not something they can possibly accede to, or accept reporters going along with.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Quite right. As a practical matter, Democrats may have an electoral edge this year, but they’re at a decided disadvantage in that they have to run three campaigns at the same time — one in support of the Democratic nominee, another in opposition to McCain, and another still in opposition to media outlets that seem a little too anxious to help elevate McCain.<\/p>\n

As far as I can tell, Howard Dean and the DNC aren’t willing to give an inch on this. Dean has practically dared the RNC to file a lawsuit, and the party isn’t about to back down.<\/p>\n

But now Dems also have to worry about AP articles going to every newspaper in the country stating incorrectly that the ad “falsely suggests John McCain wants a 100-year war in Iraq.”<\/p>\n

Once again, here’s the ad:<\/p>\n

<\/param><\/param><\/embed><\/object><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Yesterday, I suggested it would be great if the media highlighted the DNC’s new “100 years” ad against John McCain, and the RNC’s baseless whining (and threats) about the ad. The more publicity this gets, the better. This national AP article, however, is not what I had in mind. The Republican National Committee is demanding […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[617],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-15368","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15368","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15368"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15368\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15368"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15368"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15368"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}