Letters to the Editor
Majorajam
Published Letters: 308 Editor's Choice: 12
-
How I learned to stop worrying and love Joan Walsh
[Read the article: Why Jeremiah Wright is so wrong]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Give in Obamabots, yield to the sickly sweet sincerity of Salon's Big Nurse. There's no place like home, there's no place like home...
-
Blinder Wearing Obamabots Are Upset Because Media Stalwarts Are Outing Their Fraudultent Messiah
[Read the article: Did Sidney Blumenthal cross the line?]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]One wonders when this will become the header of an Ambinder post. But I digress...
I am not sympathetic to the paranoia that has engulfed this primary season, if not because it is routinely and manifestly devoid of merit, but because like Wright's rhetoric, it is manifestly not counterproductive.
But Joe, if you are reading this, I would think it important to expound on the line, "this doesn't help Obama" a bit. Because you have implied that a supporter's offending a journalist's sensibilities results in worse coverage for the candidate. I think that is as truism as taxes, but you'll never get a journalist to admit to doing it themselves. Oh no no! It's very clear to most journalists that much journalistic coverage is biased, just not theirs (paging Joan Walsh).
In other words, I find the degree to which the media is closed for business in terms of introspection- the degree to which their first last and only instincts to fall back on defensive passive aggressive stonewalling (paging ABC)- troubling. And that's all the worse because every one of its number is very much aware of how much their own prejudices and conscious choices define the coverage they provide.
In any case, I largely agree with the substance of your post. This thing about Blumenthal, this is not a veracious complaint. As I see it, Obama supporters are ticked at the hit job- sorry- tough but fair questioning and 24x7 fear, I mean, news coverage of Wright gate and bitter gate ad nauseum- that's been on display by the MSM and the parroting of right wing/Clinton campaign slime attacks. This has made for a good deal of resentment, which is no good for judgment.
In our defense, I should note that, for whatever reason and its hard to find a good one, the Clinton camp has had a monopoly on complaining about press coverage in this primary to the point where the talking point has attained truthiness. This while Obama supporter complaints about coverage are treated as the whining of petulant cult worshipers. Hard to find a more stark double-standard than that.
-
AKA Smith, aka Clinton cultist
[Read the article: Did Sidney Blumenthal cross the line?]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Reading some of your letters, I'm wondering if you have a problem with Lee Atwater or Karl Rove tactics, or if you think they're just disco because they win elections. So the Clintons wanted Obama to be known as the 'black candidate' huh? What's the big deal?! After all, they'd lost the black vote anyway so it made sense. This very argument would justify the Willie Horton ad, fyi. Were you all for that? Marveling at its political genius?
I'm sorry, maybe I've lost my sense of humor over being called a tenderfoot, cult follower, blah blah by Clinton supporters who actually seem to believe the inane rhetoric. As I alluded to in my first post on this thread, when Clinton supporters complain about media coverage they are merely supporting their candidate from odious media bias. And we all know the media is out to get her, so good on her supporters for diligently pointing that out. Meanwhile, when Obama supporters complain it's because someone has offended their messiah, because they're overly sensitive naifs who can't take the heat and don't belong in the kitchen. I know, I know, the ludicrousness of this doesn't matter because it works politically! And what a wonderful and functional political culture we have carved out for ourselves. No wonder the business of this country is running so swimmingly.
As long as we're laying out links, I think this should be required reading for Clinton cultists, and especially those credulous enough to foist the canard that Obama has played the race card: http://www.thenation.com/doc/20080519/betsyreed