Joe Conason: How Bashing Hillary Backfired

[Hissyspit]

http://www.salon.com/opinion/conason/2008/01/10/new_hampshire

How bashing Hillary backfired
The overwhelmingly negative press corps may have rallied voters to Clinton's side and turned her narrow victory into a resurrection.

By Joe Conason

Jan. 10, 2008 | Everybody has a theory about the remarkable resurgence of Hillary Clinton in New Hampshire. She "cried her way" to victory. Or she had a better vote-pulling operation. Or she benefited from a "Bradley effect" of white voters reluctant to actually pull the lever for an African-American candidate. But what seems just as plausible as any other explanation is also the most ironic: that New Hampshire Democrats -- and especially Democratic women -- were sick of the corrosive hostility and naked slant of the mainstream media against her.

The polls that had showed Barack Obama well ahead of Clinton were not so much wrong as misleading -- or at least badly interpreted by journalists too eager to write Clinton's political obituary. In fact, the polls correctly measured Obama's share of the vote. What happened during the contest's last few days was that the undecided broke for Clinton, and the question is why.

- snip -

Does anyone still doubt that many of the most influential members of the national press corps dislike Hillary Clinton and treat her accordingly? Bias is far too mild a term to describe the bullying she has endured on cable television as well as in print. Indeed, prejudice against her is evidently so ingrained in the culture of the political media by now that the most inflamed commentators and journalists no longer feel constrained to conceal their emotions in the name of objectivity. During the current primary season, the disparity in her treatment compared with that of her rivals -- especially the indulgent and even adoring coverage of Obama -- became simply too obvious to ignore.

When Washington Post media critic Howard Kurtz finally devoted a column to the subject last month, Mark Halperin of Time told him that "the press's flaws -- wild swings, accentuating the negative -- are magnified 50 times when it comes to her. It's not a level playing field." Dana Milbank, Kurtz's colleague at the Washington Post, went even further in his confession. "The press will savage her no matter what, pretty much," Milbank said on CNN's "Reliable Sources." "There's no question they have their knives out for her."

- snip -

Then came the famous moment when Clinton's eyes welled up as she answered a woman's question about how she copes with the constant pressure of her candidacy.

The scoffing reaction of the press to her display of emotion, and in particular the dismissal by certain male commentators, may well have sparked a backlash among the women voters who provided Clinton's small margin over Obama in New Hampshire. Perhaps they just didn't like seeing her get beaten up again -- and if so, they had an immediate opportunity to protest.

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[AX10]

1. The anti-Hillary bias is more than absurd.

[Skittles]

6. it is indeed

I am not a fan of HRC but even I can see how she is held to extremely higher scrutiny than, well, anyone who ever run for president

[OHdem10]

2. The media chose to ignore that part of the poll : that said

40% UNDECIED

These voters broke for HRC. The Media so in love with Obama
were negligent or thought that because they are enthralled
with Obama--everyone else should be too.

People over 45, are over the hill, and God help the 60 yearolds--
they have one foot in the grave and the other on a banana peel
I guess. This is what the Media think

People 45 and older broke for HRC. This Media Group we have
now never appear to think things through. When I see over
45 this is majority of the entire country.

I do not mean to be mean. But they keep talking about Barak
uniting the country. At this point he seems to unite High
Schoolers, College Kids and 20 Somthings to 30somthings.

The fact that over 40s broke for HRC tells you they have
different goals and aspirations.

[The Magistrate]

3. There Is Something To This, Sir

It has certainly angered women in my family.

Should Sen. Clinton become the nominee, it seems likely to me the tenor of the Republican campaign will take on such a viciously misogynistic tone that quite a few suburban and rural Republican wives will likely, in the privacy of the voting booth, cast votes for her just because hubby said "that fucking Hillary bitch" once too often....

"The angry Clinton haters in the press corps suffer from the same flat learning curve as Wile E. Coyote. They don't understand why their Acme arsenal never quite does the job, and instead often leaves them with grimy faces and aching heads."

[Hamlette]

5. happened in my family too

We all supported different candidates but starting Sunday the other women in my extended family started calling so pissed at how she was being treated. If we'd been in NH, Obama and Edwards would have lost a few votes each to Hillary.

My question is why do they do it? Do they not so secretly want Hillary to be the candidate because they love to bash her? If so, they might want to know that they will lose some viewers. I expected if of Tweety, but KO was horrid too.

Let me know when its safe to watch KO again.

I'm pissed because he bashed her so badly and I'm NOT a Hillary fan.

[Hardrada]

8. As a caveat, I would say I know some GOP women who

would rise from their deathbeds to vote against HRC. There were republicans at our caucus I had not seen for years who had come out to (briefly) change parties in order to fire a warning collective salvo at the HRC campaign.

[Didereaux]

4. good to see the MSM is catching up to DU...this was posted awhile ago...

The first post warning of the possibility of backlash was posted Monday. This one earlier today as an extension of it.

When the candidates own trackers all of them come down to the last day agreeing and then at vote counting time it comes out the opposite: The smart people look first to what happened in the last 24hrs.

Hillary got bashed good by the TV networks, by the other candidates(and it was widely perceived that Edwards had puposefully whip-sawed her with Obama), follow that with the Newspaper bashings by the Boston Globe and NYT...THEN for the first time Hillary showed the rest of the country what I honestly believe was an actual unscripted honest heartfelt emotion backed answer (yes, she quickly recovered and went back to the mask, but it was there), it played all over the media(they wrongly interpreted it as a gasp of despair)...add all those together and toss them at a group of people who think of themselves as charitable and compassionate and you get: BACKLASH! plain old uncomplicated BACKLASH!

[Hoof Hearted]

7. Excellent article. I heard all manner of uncharitable things said about her and they were fairly

dripping with glee at tearing her down and watching her be crushed and beaten. Too bad she messed up their dinner plans.