The Liberal Media, Redux
Demosthenes at Shadow of the Hegemon, like CalPundit, is good for a non-hysterical view of the ongoing stories floating around the BlogNet. Not that I object to hysteria, mind you, I just think it's a good thing to step back once in a while to make sure you're hysterical about the right thing.
Tonight Demosthenes is suggesting the big story isn't so much the Bushista lies as the media calling them on their lies:
In my opinion, (as I've mentioned earlier) it isn't Bush's lies about that subject, or their relationship to war, or even the public's reaction. It's the media, appropriately enough, that is the true story here. The story is in their willingness to explore these sorts of question; when they discover something, it's also in their reluctance to simply regurgigate the President's spin, as had been the case in the past. While the story is often (and, in my opinion, erroneously) framed as a Bush v. Democrats issue, the fact that the issue is making it onto the cover of Time and into the pages of newspapers shows a media that is, perhaps, more willing to attack Bush. In fact, in many respects it is the covers and headlines that are key- as others have pointed out, many people pay more attention to the headline than they ever do the article, and the headlines have been predominantly uncritical of Bush even when articles include critical elements. (The controversy over the CBS "lied" headline also centers around this point- that they felt confident enough to overstate instead of massively understate speaks volumes)
But it seems it's also about how the Bushistas are
mis-handling the whole mess. He's got a really interesting example in the election of Pierre Trudeau.
posted by Prometheus 6 at 7/14/2003 11:42:34 PM |
Posted by P6 at July 14, 2003 11:42 PM
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