PrintMarch 10, 2008
MSM and McCain - the takedown continues
On last night's local news my ABC affiliate WLOS ran a long piece on McCain that consisted entirely of what they called bloopers from the past week. This included
1) McCain's tongued tied moment when he called himself a liberal Republican
2) McCain trying three different microphones at a campaign appearance, none of which worked
3) McCain then getting drowned out by a passing airplane as he spoke about the bombing of the recruiting center in Manhattan.
4) McCain bumping his head on a TV camera while walking past the cameraman
5) McCain keeping George W. Bush waiting outside the White House with no explanation offered for the delay. This was followed by three separate shots of Bush patting McCain on the back in very best buddy style when he finally arrived just to make sure voters connected McCain with Bush.
6) An edited version of McCain's confrontation with the NY Times reporter which once again dragged up McCain being mentioned as a possible VP to John Kerry in 2004 without showing how totally obnoxious the reporter had been behaving
7) The press trampling a group of small children at a McCain event with chaotic shouts in the background.
It was presented as being all in good fun but the general impression given was of a lack of competence by McCain and his campaign. More importantly,like the passing plane, it totally drowned out McCain's message. Bad microphones, running late, clumsiness and that occasional moment when the simplest English sentiment comes out mangled happens to every candidate. When the press likes a candidate, they never show the clips that make him or her look clumsy, unorganized or inarticulate. When they don't like him or her, they'll bury the candidate with such images.
