The top ten media blunders of 2008

[DeepModem Mom]

Politico: The top ten media blunders of 2008
By: Michael Calderone
December 22, 2008

....1) New Hampshire primary: Pundits predicted a campaign-ending, double-digit loss long before the polls closed, and some networks, perhaps disbelieving the results, didn’t call the election until after Obama had already conceded. "I will never underestimate Hillary Clinton again,” Chris Matthews said on MSNBC....

2) The New York Times' McCain-Iseman story: There was so much hype leading up to The Times' front-page investigation of John McCain’s relationship with lobbyists — dating back at least to a Drudge leak two months earlier — that without something concrete, the story was doomed to fail. Executive Editor Bill Keller said there’s more to the piece than the strongly suggested, never outright stated, romantic relationship between the senator with lobbyist Vikki Iseman, but that’s what the public seized upon. The Times put it out there but couldn’t prove it, leading both the right and the left to slam the piece....

3) Matthews, Olbermann as co-anchors: Having MSNBC stars Chris Matthews and Keith Olbermann co-anchor Election Night and convention coverage drew the public ire of conservatives (and many Clinton supporters), and internally network journalists grumbled that the pair tarnished NBC’s established journalism brand. By the time the Democrats reached Denver, Jon Stewart had dubbed the network “lord of the flies.”...

4) “Terrorist fist bump” and “baby mama”: Fox News, in one week last summer, twice took racially tinged shots at Michelle Obama....

5) “Pimped out”: MSNBC’s David Shuster said that Chelsea Clinton was being “pimped out” by the campaign for calling superdelegates on her mother’s behalf....

6) ABC Democratic Debate in Philadelphia: Co-moderators Charles Gibson and George Stephanopoulos faced plenty of blowback following the Obama-Clinton debate for spending the first half focused on what many complained were trivial issues — his relationships with the Rev. Jeremiah Wright and Bill Ayers, and his stance on flag pins....

7) National Enquirer’s Edwards story: During the primaries, mainstream media outlets, this one included, declined to report on the National Enquirer’s shoe-leather reporting on John Edwards’ affair, even after their reporters caught him visiting the woman at the Beverly Hilton. Bloggers kept the story simmering while most news organizations ignored the mounting evidence — that is, until Edward finally came clean on ABC after he'd already dropped out of the race....

8) New Yorker’s “Politics of Fear” cover: The Zabar’s set were in on the joke. But some didn’t see the humor in the illustration of Barack and Michelle Obama sharing a terrorist fist-jab and dressed, respectively, as a Muslim and Angela Davis-style black radical, with an Osama bin Laden painting on the mantle and an AK-47 leaning against the fireplace, in which burned the American flag....

9) Veepstakes mistakes....

10) CNN’s Drew Griffin misquoting the National Review....

http://dyn.politico.com/printstory.cfm?uuid=5C593F04-18FE-70B2-A853DACA726E9AB9

[FrenchieCat]

1. #6 was like an assault on Democracy, and how the media is supposed to work.

It was quite frightening. Like McCarthyism run amok.

[Hardrada]

2. And all the different little gates: Snubgate, Crygate, BowlingGate,

you name it.

[Berry Cool]

3. This piece is bogus.

If Matthews and Olbermann as anchors was so bad, how come on the BIG election night, MSNBC essentially let them do their thing and reduced David Gregory to the role of figurehead? Keith even got to call the election. I maintain that MSNBC felt under pressure from Repugs to make changes, so they did some cosmetic deck shuffling, but when they realized they needed their Keith and Tweety team to have any zing to the thing at all, they essentially brought them back as coanchors, and Gregory was just there for show.