The Media, Democrats and “Republican Slime”

With the Democratic National Convention in full swing and fawning media coverage for Barack Obama on the level of somewhere between a coronation and a beautification; it is a wonderful time to reflect on the Mainstream Media (MSM) and the way they view the two political parties. With well over 90% of the credentialed Washington press willing to admit they are Democrats, it is hardly surprising that they would be swooning over the prospects of an Obama presidency. In fact, the default position for the MSM seems to be to always give the Democrats the benefit of the doubt and suspect the motives of every Republican.

The big catch phrase this election cycle for the MSM has been the “Republican Slime Machine”. By that they mean unfair attacks on Democrats like the “Swift Boating” of John Kerry in 2004. In the Swift Boat ads, over 100 combat veterans, who served alongside John Kerry, were willing to stand up, state their names and cite specific events they had personally witnessed. Four years later, Senator Kerry still hasn’t released his full military records. With his signature on the bottom of a single document, he could have discredited the Swift Boat Vets and proven he was the war hero he so boldly claimed when he was “reporting for duty” at the last Democratic Convention. Instead of demanding the full release of Kerry’s military record, the MSM focused their energy questioning the motives of the Swift Boat Vets.

On the Republican side, President George W. Bush released all of his military records and answered all questions about his service in the National Guard. Still, CBS ran a much heralded report on “Sixty Minutes” with Dan Rather relying on a single anonymous source and forged documents to try and impugn the president. Thanks to sharp-eyed bloggers the fraud was quickly exposed and CBS found itself dancing backwards faster than Ginger Rogers in a Fred Astaire movie.

In this election cycle, the MSM ignores or minimizes well documented facts about Barack Obama while promoting rumors and innuendo about John McCain. The media has turned a blind eye to Obama and his connection with a confessed 60’s radical who brags about bombing government buildings. They gloss over the fact that the Obama’s got a sweetheart deal when they bought a house for a $300,000 discount off the asking price while convicted embezzler Tony Rezko bought the adjoining vacant property for full price. Rezko then sold part of the land to Obama at a steep discount. No one in the MSM seemed the least bit curious about the $14 million dollars in federal funds Obama had help to direct to Rezko and his companies. In a shameless example of media bias, in the current issue of Newsweek, they actually go so far as to condemn John McCain for mentioning this obvious conflict of interest in recent campaign ads.

On the other side, the New York Times ran a thinly supported hit piece alleging that McCain had an affair with a lobbyist eight years earlier. The Times, facing an indignant firestorm of criticism, claimed the article was not about an alleged affair but about potential ethics problems for McCain. Their protestation seemed a bit hollow considering the first six paragraphs of a front page article was about an affair everyone denied ever happened and included a photo of the lobbyist an unnamed source had claimed the campaign was “worried” about.

It is rare when a politician will call someone a “liar” the way Obama did when the Christian Broadcasting Network asked him about his 2003 committee vote on “Born Alive” legislation while he was still in Illinois. The bill would have required doctors to try to save the life of any child born alive during a botched abortion. It turns out Obama was the one who was lying; he was in favor of letting the baby die. So far the MSM – which is nearly 100% pro-choice – has closed ranks on this little nugget and they have minimized or buried any and all stories about Barack Obama’s twisted support of a woman’s right to choose even if it means infanticide.

Among the many other stories the MSM has chosen to overlook, is the presence of several members of the wildly anti-Semitic and racist “Nation of Islam” on Obama’s senior staff both now and while he was still in the Illinois legislature. Imagine the uproar if McCain had a few avowed Klansmen working for him. They have also overlooked that in his brief time in the U.S. Senate he amassed the most liberal voting record of any member in 2007.

The mainstream media has shown no reluctance in protecting their chosen candidate and trashing McCain at every opportunity. This poses an interesting question; is it a “Republican Slime Machine” or should that title belong to the Mainstream Media?