Clinton's exit from race a preoccupation for reporters: "Commentary disguised as reporting"?

[DeepModem Mom]

AP: Clinton's exit a preoccupation for reporters
By DAVID BAUDER

NEW YORK (AP) — Now that Hillary Clinton has ended her bid for the presidency, political journalists are suddenly deprived of one of their favorite stories: When is she going to drop out?

A study shows the only campaign topics that got more attention the past two months were Barack Obama's talkative former minister, the Pennsylvania primary and the fallout from President Bush's remarks about appeasement while in Israel. More time was spent talking about when Clinton might call it quits than about how the candidates might deal with the war in Iraq, the high price of gasoline, home foreclosures or the sputtering economy. Or about anything that presumptive Republican nominee John McCain said or did during April and May, according to the Project for Excellence in Journalism's analysis of political coverage in newspapers, on Internet sites and on television news....

The coverage embittered the Clinton campaign and, in the eyes of one veteran journalist, should provoke some soul-searching. "It was inappropriate, for journalists especially, to try to cut the process short," NBC News' anchor emeritus, Tom Brokaw, told The Associated Press. "It was an appropriate issue for people to report on, in context, but there was an awful lot of commentary disguised as reporting that gave the impression that people were trying to shove her out of the race."

Brokaw's old-school attitude often put him at odds with Chris Matthews and Keith Olbermann when he joined them for primary night coverage on MSNBC this year. One example was last Tuesday. Brokaw was talking about the contrasts between McCain and Obama when Olbermann interjected about "a third one trying to shoehorn her way" into the coverage. "Well, I think that's unfair, Keith," Brokaw replied. "I don't think she shoehorned her way in. When you look at the states that she won and the popular vote that she piled up, and the number of delegates that she has on her side, she's got real bargaining power in all of this."

Brokaw called all the discussion about Clinton's exit a product of "too much time and too little imagination."...

There was also an overwhelming need for closure, odd for a very close race even in the context of recent history, when Gary Hart and Ted Kennedy took losing nomination fights to the summer conventions. As one veteran political reporter wondered recently: why would journalists seem so eager to see the best story of their life end?

"I've always felt that it was not the job of reporters to be like `The Gong Show' and hoot candidates off the stage," said John Harris, editor in chief of the Politico Web site. Between the fascination of many reporters with Obama and constant counting of his slow march toward the required number of delegates for the nomination, the Clinton campaign has some legitimate gripes about the way they were covered, he said....

http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5hSB_D0aKwZZGIfxKlVbrLuDFNNvgD916ANO00

[Captain Hilts]

1. Haynes Johnson also mentioned he'd NEVER seen the press hound a candidate out...

most candidates take it to the convention, as Ted Kennedy and Gary Hart did or wait a while to endorse - Bill Bradley waited FOUR months to endorse Gore.

[FrenchieCat]

2. She had already lost......and her campaign wasn't devulging that fact......

so certainly, the way that the Hillary campaign would have like to have it, she probably shouldn't have been hounded, and in fact should have won by virtue of the popular vote.

In this case, much of the "when" was warranted, as Hillary Clinton was attacking her opponent as though he belonged to the other party....and the more she stayed, the more damage she did.

But whatever.

[DURHAM D]

3. Don't you ever get tired of swallowing your own vomit? eom

[Name removed]

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[KudosMan]

6. Hillary never lost

Her campaign was deliberately torpedoed by the MEDIA with their vested interest.

[Name removed]

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