Salon: The Media vs Howard Dean

[kskiska]

Democrats haven't voted yet, but reporters have got the story: The former Vermont governor is angry, gaffe-prone and unelectable. How do they know? Republicans, and anonymous Democrats, told them so.

By Eric Boehlert

When the Washington Post introduced readers to Howard Dean in a long Page 1 feature July 6, part of a series of "meet the Democrats" candidate profiles, the paper went for the jugular, literally, with a cartoonish, unflattering description to open the article: "Howard Dean was angry. Ropy veins popped out of his neck, blood rushed to his cheeks, and his eyes, normally blue-gray, flashed black, all dilated pupils."

Six months later, an extended version of that campaign narrative, polished by Republican talking-points memos and echoed day after day by the mainstream media, remains a constant of the campaign trail: Dean is a sarcastic smart aleck with foot-in-the mouth disease, a political ticking time bomb. The former Vermont governor remains the front-runner among Democratic voters, but he's gotten increasingly caustic treatment from the media, which has dwelled on three big themes -- that Dean's angry, gaffe-prone and probably not electable -- while giving comparatively far less ink to the doctor's policy and political prescriptions that have catapulted him ahead of the Democratic field. Newsweek's critical Jan. 12 cover story, "All the Rage: Dean's Shoot-From-the-Hip Style and Shifting Views Might Doom Him in November," achieved a nifty trifecta that covered anger, gaffes and electability, all three of the main media raps against Dean.

(snip)

For Dean's top backer there must be a sense of déjà vu in all of this. In 2000, Vice President Al Gore suffered from chronically caustic coverage that clung to all sorts of fictional, Republican-inspired spin about the vice president being an unlikable, untrustworthy exaggerator. Suddenly, as with Gore in 2000, it seems Dean is battling not only his Democratic opponents and Republican Party officials, he's also wrestling members of the media's chattering class who view him with growing unease and even contempt.

Without the Gore press fiasco as a backdrop it might seem as if Dean were simply wading through an inevitable rough patch with the press -- that pundits and reporters are practicing the usual baptism-by-fire, forcing the unlikely front-runner to earn his stripes. That's a legitimate, even expected part of any race for the White House. But watching the striking similarities between the way the D.C. press is covering Dean and how it treated Gore, and contrasting it with the way it has treated President Bush, it's becoming harder to avoid the obvious conclusion: that Democratic presidential front-runners and nominees are held to a higher, tougher standard by the Washington press corps.

more…
http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2004/01/13/dean_media/

[PATRICK]

1. late to the awakening?

Better than never. So what are you going to do about it this time! Nyah, says Corporate pravda.

[KissMyAsscroft]

2. They will do this to any nominee...

Whoever the candidate is will have to bring new voters into the fold, and do an end around the media.

I think the Dem candidate should pretty much keep campaigning around America and not bother with the talk shows and the bullshit spin. I think Dean should let his spokespeople handle the whores and he should stay above the fray.

[priller]

3. Good article. Dean getting "Gore'd", but worse

The DC press corp is pathetic, Dean calls them on it, and now they hate him and are doing everything they can to trash him. No better evidence than the Paula Zahn interview with Joe Trippi last week. She was trying so hard to create a scandal where there was none, and Trippi would not let her get away with it. Made her look like an idiot.

[reprehensor]

4. Good find.

Take the rest of the day off.