By Yael T. Abouhalkah, Kansas City Star Editorial Page columnist
Les Payne ought to know better. Yet Payne, a Newsday editor and one of the country's leading black journalists, recently complained about how the media are lavishing praise on ... John McCain. Are you kidding me?
Payne, a founder of the National Association of Black Journalists, recently appeared at the Unity: Journalists of Color convention in Chicago.
According to Star colleague Steve Penn, Payne said:
"There’s no question that the mainstream journalists almost worship and love McCain. They cheer for him all the time."
What a laughable statement.
Even staunch Obama supporters would have to acknowledge that the Illinois senator has been the darling of much of the media for months.
He's been portrayed as the fresh agent of change, the person who stood up to the Clinton machine and won, the Democrat who will bridge the gap between whites and blacks while winning back the White House in November.
McCain, meanwhile, has been portrayed as an old man out of touch with technology, fumbling around to get his presidential campaign in gear, a Republican who will suffer the consequences of the disastrous George Bush presidency.
Sure, Obama's media coverage has toughened up as he has gotten closer to his goal of being president. Meanwhile, though, the media's coverage of McCain hasn't become any softer.
Payne has his right to claim the media are bending over backward to cover McCain in glory. He's just flat out wrong.
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Inter Flop
Is totally in the tank for Osama Yomama, take his comments for what they are worth, ZIP!
The media loves the "Messiah", and they loved McCain too when he was trahing the Repbulicans. Now of course since he is running closer to the right, he sucks.....
BTW Inter Flop which of the "57 states" is Yomama campainging in order to become "commander of chief"?+
"Portrayed?"
"McCain, meanwhile, has been portrayed as an old man out of touch with technology, fumbling around to get his presidential campaign in gear, a Republican who will suffer the consequences of the disastrous George Bush presidency."
This statement implies that he's not in fact (1) an old man, (2) out of touch with technology, (3) fumbling around to get his presidential campaign in gear, (4) a Republican, or (5) one who will likely suffer the consequences of the disastrous George Bush presidency."
As I see it, 1, 2, 4, and 5 are all essentially factual statements. Number 3, I suppose is a judgment call, but one that may very well be an accurate one.
MSM?
"You may be right. After all, the main stream media failed to cover the warm welcome that Senator McCain received in Sturgis, S.D."
I saw this on at least three news channels, over and over again. Pretty sure I saw mention in the Times and Post too.
Didn't see the naked beauty contestants, though. Perhaps I'm watching wrong cable channels.
Thank god for family values! ;-D
The Main Stream Media
You may be right. After all, the main stream media failed to cover the warm welcome that Senator McCain received in Sturgis, S.D. Thousands of bikers, many of whom are war veterans, turned out to hear him speak. They cheered wildly when he nominated Mrs McCain to compete in the Miss Buffalo Chip beauty contest. This pagent gives working girls an opportunity to display their wares without having to buy costly gowns. I'm sure the lovely Cindy McCain could have held her own against the younger competition. The main stream media ignored the egalitarian side of this down-home couple. Thank goodness for cable.