News media out to get Romney

As reported by the Center for Media and Public Affairs :

Frontrunner Mitt Romney is getting by far the most negative press of the GOP field, according to a new study of television news coverage by the Center for Media and Public Affairs at George Mason University. The study also found that the campaign horse race is getting over six times as much coverage as the candidates’ positions on policy issues. According to CMPA director and George Mason University professor Robert Lichter, “The media love a horse race and hate a frontrunner.”

This is consistent with what I have been telling you the last several weeks. The media has been rooting for Newt because they want a horserace so they have something to cover and get high ratings, and also because I suspect that the liberals in the media want Newt to win because (1) they think Obama will have an easier time defeating him; and (2) even if he wins, he’s pro-immigration, his hypocrisy on being pro-family values while he has cheated on his wives makes liberals feel good about being liberal, and they figure he can’t be all that bad if he appeared on an anti-global warming TV ad with Nancy Pelosi.

Comments

[Conquistador]

Space cadet Newt promised a moon colony! Maybe we can send our NAMs there. The British Empire sent it's lumpenproles abroad we should too.

[Conquistador]

Off topic but Whiskey's blog is gone does anybody know what happened? I fear one day Half Sigma will also disappear forever.

http://whiskeys-place.blogspot.com/

[patrick]

It's as if you just discovered that news media outlets are for-profit enterprises.

But even if this wasn't the case they would still focus on the horse race because it is frankly more interesting than the minute differences in the policies of each candidate. Also, Romney should probably wish to avoid too much examination of his pro-wealthy tax policies and laughable "self-deport" immigration stance.

Newt would be a fucking terrible nominee as well as president so it's good to see you come around to what liberals have been saying about him for over ten years. But why did you give this conservative grifter a pass but not Sarah Palin? Newt's just a nerdier prole with delusions of grandeur.

[Sid]

I think the news media has been a bit more snarky at Gingrich ever since he told them off during the South Carolina debates. I'm sure they would like him to be the poor dog put down by Obama, but since he keeps on biting their hands, they're not enthused about picking up him.

Santorum hasn't capitalized on Gingrich's latest wounds. Honestly, it's remarkable how little Santorum stands out. He gave a good show in Iowa and eventually edged out over Romney there, but I think that's just because he went to every precinct in Iowa, which is what Iowans appreciate most. He might be a remarkable guy in a boardroom, but his speeches and debate performances are very forgettable.

[JP]

And from another point of view:

http://townhall.com/columnists/johnhawkins/2012/01/31/five_reasons_so_many_grassroots_conservatives_dont_like_mitt_romney/print

Mitt Romney has benefitted from a tremendous media double standard. Other than Herman Cain, who at least is a conservative who has worked tirelessly for the Tea Party, Mitt Romney is the single least qualified man running for office in the Republican field. Yes, Mitt's business experience is a plus, but it didn't help him in Massachusetts, where he was an awful, unpopular governor whose signature program, Romneycare, has been a miserable failure. Romney has gotten where he is because he's rich, the establishment is behind him, and much of the conservative media has been greasing the skids for him.

The double standards have been extraordinary and grating. The other candidates had to bring up Bain Capital because much of the conservative media wouldn't touch the very issue that Ted Kennedy used to beat Mitt Romney's brains in back in 1994. Even today, when you try to point out that Mitt's "100,000" jobs created number is pure vapor, that he made a lot of money off of deals where the taxpayers and the FDIC had to pick up the tab, or that it looks awful for Mitt to make millions on deals where businesses went under and hundreds of middle class workers lost their jobs, you're answered with cries of "capitalism" and "free enterprise!" Good luck with that strategy in the general election if, God help us all, Mitt gets that far.

Furthermore, remember when Newt Gingrich was ahead of Mitt in Iowa, running a positive campaign, and was told "Politics ain't beanbag" after Mitt creamed him with millions in negative ads? Then remember when those same people squealed with outrage when Mitt got exactly what he had been dishing out after New Hampshire? We were told Newt was campaigning like a liberal when he hit Mitt on Bain Capital, but when Mitt ran dishonest ads featuring Tom Brokaw crowing about a now discredited ethics investigation, the same people were silent. After the last debate, it was amazing to hear talking heads telling everyone how wonderful Mitt did after Rick Santorum gutted him like a Christmas turkey on Obamacare and Romney was booed by the audience after he was caught lying about not having seen an ad that he personally endorsed.

Let's be honest and name some names: Jen Rubin, Charles Krauthammer, George Will, National Review, Fox News and the Drudge Report among others have been shilling for Mitt Romney and attacking his adversaries during this primary the way the the New York Times will for Barack Obama in the general election. That doesn't make them RINOS, liberals, part of the establishment or bad people. Reasonable people can reach different conclusions about which candidate to support. But that being said, these people should realize that as far as a lot of other conservatives are concerned, they are betting their reputations on Mitt Romney. What they are in effect saying in so many words is, "Vote for Mitt Romney and we promise you that not only will he get elected, he'll govern conservatively." Given his record, that's liquidating your house and putting it on a spin of the roulette wheel.

[me.yahoo.com/a/H3AGohAspuRBK2pcTPp9O8k5JBKw5h4-]

Now we have Romney saying he wishes he could claim to be a Hispanic. And some people believe he is the great white hope that will save us from the immigrants? It's obvious this guy is disturbingly insincere in so many levels, and once the real Mitt comes out he will make Obama look like Kennedy.

http://www.mediaite.com/tv/mitt-romney-on-fox-friends-i-wish-i-could-claim-i-was-hispanic/