Posted on 08/31/2012 4:39:29 AM PDT by Kaslin
In 2004, Arnold Schwarzenegger, then a popular figure in the Republican Party, gave an exciting, upbeat and surprisingly funny speech at the GOP convention. He covered a lot of territory: the story of how he came to America, how he became a Republican after listening to Richard Nixon, and other highlights of his life story.
Afterwards, then-CBS News anchor Dan Rather reported that Schwarzenegger "slapped John Kerry around like a hockey puck."
The only problem: Schwarzenegger never mentioned John Kerry, not even once.
I bring it up because it's hardly news that much of the press likes to report the convention as they want it to be rather than as it is.
It's also somewhat less than a thunderclap revelation that the press and the Democratic Party tend to see things the same way. Which is why it's unremarkable that the "fact-checkers" and Democratic Party press-release writers are on the same page.
Hence the relentless coverage of vice presidential nominee Paul Ryan's "lies" during his convention speech. His story about a Janesville, Wis., GM plant, in particular, has stirred up a journalistic fuss:
"A lot of guys I went to high school with worked at that GM plant. Right there at that plant, candidate Obama said: 'I believe that if our government is there to support you ... this plant will be here for another hundred years.' That's what he said in 2008. Well, as it turned out, that plant didn't last another year."
The Associated Press fact-checkers were among the most restrained in their "correction."
"The plant halted production in December 2008," the AP explained, "weeks before Obama took office and well before he enacted a more robust auto industry bailout that rescued GM and Chrysler and allowed the majority of their plants -- though not the Janesville facility -- to stay in operation."
The first problem is that Ryan wasn't referencing the bailout at all, but the sorry state of the overall economy and President Obama's record of over-promising and under-delivering.
A bigger problem is that the AP didn't even look up its own reporting about the Janesville plant. "Production at the General Motors plant in Janesville is scheduled to end for good this week," the news services reported on April 19, 2009. "GM spokesman Christopher Lee says operations at the southern Wisconsin plant will cease Thursday."
And there's the small matter that everything about Ryan's statement was true if you go by the plain meaning of the words.
Or consider the media's obsession with the alleged racism of the GOP. The folks at MSNBC are particularly obsessed with the race angle. New York Magazine political reporter John Heilemann and "Hardball" host Chris Matthews concluded the other night that the word "Chicago" is racially loaded code.
"They keep saying 'Chicago,'" Matthews said. "That's another thing that sends that message -- this guy's helping the poor people in the bad neighborhoods, screwing us in the 'burbs."
Heilemann nodded, adding, "There's a lot of black people in Chicago."
One standard cliché is to bemoan the fact that there are so many "white faces" among the delegates. This potted observation is usually brought up in connection with some chin-pulling insight about the GOP's problems reaching out to minorities.
Many an hour can be wasted listening to the gang at MSNBC expressing their deep concerns about this pressing issue and how the GOP must adapt to a more diverse America. Perhaps the GOP would do better if allegedly serious people stopped going on national television and saying that even the use of the word "Chicago" is now racially loaded.
Meanwhile, one thing the GOP could do is put forward some really attractive and compelling minority speakers to deliver its message. Indeed, that's what the GOP did on its first night of the convention -- and the concerned folks at MSNBC opted to stop covering the speeches whenever a minority took the stage.
If the coverage of this convention is an indication of the trajectory the media will follow for the rest of the campaign, you can be sure of three things: Lies will be defined as facts that are inconvenient to President Obama, racists will be understood to be Republicans who are winning an argument, and truth will be slapped around like a hockey puck.
The Left has nothing but attacks. Can’t stand behind their guy’s achievements. Vote Obama if you like Socialism. Vote Romney if you like Freedom.
As the deomcrat party becomes increasingly anti-White and anti-Western, what do they expect?
When I hear the “Chicago” metaphor used I immediately think “Corrupt Politics marked by Back Room Deals.” I don’t think the thing that makes Chicago unique is a large Black population. This is a huge reach and shows that the liberal talking heads are really winging it. Twitter rots your brain, guys.
“and the concerned folks at MSNBC opted to stop covering the speeches whenever a minority took the stage”
I’ve read this too many times in too many places for it not to be true. Ditto about CNN and the old networks. In an overall uplifting week where “planet claire” journalists are offering many accusations of conflated racism, this is the only one I’ve heard that rings true in any way. The accusers are guilty rather than the accused. What Gingrich did to Matthews the other night needs to be the new normal. They must be confronted and exposed. ABC news must be forced to defend their decision to take Condi Rice off the air, Rice being among the most accomplished women to have ever lived, let alone black woman. These people want to keep minorities ill-informed so they can not ever realize their full societal standing they pretend to support.
I remember that speech better than any other I’ve ever heard. It was a GREAT speech. I was pounding on the table in agreement, until hubby told me to stop.
I also remember Condolezza Rice, not from this year, but maybe from that same year as Arnold. She told the story of how her father was a loyal republican because the dems wouldn’t register him to vote but the republicans would and did.
My problem was that EVERYBODY was talking about the convention, rather than show the convention.
Hubby and I were switching around on the first night and every single station was having interviews and panel discussions and not showing the speakers. Now, I get it that some speakers are not that interesting to non-attendees and I’m willing to believe that MSNBC refused to show any non-white, non-male speakers, but they were all bad.
There was a problem with our computerized TV guide grid, so we didn’t realize it was on C-SPAN, but by Wed. with the help of some freepers, we knew C-SPAN was covering it, so we watched that for the next 2 nights.
Much, much better.
These TV talking heads have all year to yammer, they can’t part with the spotlight for even a few hours.
Friend of foe, political junkie or just a curious person, if I’m tuning into a party’s convention, it’s because I want to SEE THE CONVENTION. Why is that hard? It’s like the Olympics, too much blah, blah, not enough actual, you know, SPORTS.
I listened to NPR last night and this morning. They are as bad as MSNBC. They are just more “soft spoken” about it. Same comments, though. They tried to skewer Ryan’s speech, but failed miserably regarding listeners that actually heard the speech.
NPR: Never Praise Republicans, Northeastern Peoples’ Radio, etc.
Which of course, is in and of itself a lie, as it's tailored toward smug NE liberal elitists. But they pretend to be the voice of the "common man", which makes naming them this way as honest as CCCP, DDR, PRC, PRK, etc.
When I hear “Chicago”, I think of too much effort on gun control and not enough on crime control.
BUMP!
On the first night I too had Fox on and thought this is baloney so I switched to CSPAN and stayed for the week. O’Reilly was particularly awful. We only used the nets when it was a big name and we’re sure there would be no cutaways to take advantage of HD.
Having participated in ultra heavily regulated businesses, both the Missus and I were totally jazzed by the “we built it” speeches the nets kept stepping on all the time. With both of us typically hyper-susceptible to “red meat” we found the week’s alternative course to be inspiring and totally feel the momentum building for Romney and Ryan. I agree with you - the bloviaters can’t shut up for even a minute and sometimes the best words are silence.
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