Wednesday, March 26, 2008

Free Ride: John McCain and the Media

John McCain is a lying politician, just like so many of similar stripe.

He is a hypocrite who on the one hand sponsors a bill to regulate campaign spending and in the other hand accepts obscene amounts of money from the same groups he criticizes.

He is an immoral son-of-a-bitch who began a torrid affair with his second wife while still happily married to his first wife.

He has defended the interests of more crooks in Congress than any sitting Senator. (Well, I made that up but it sure sound great doesn't it? Sounds accurate, too!)

He is a psychopath who flies off the handle when angered, and if there is anyone who shouldn't be answering that call at three in the morning, it's this whack-job!

McCain wants to claim the moral high ground on every issue but is such a piece of shit he makes Clinton and Obama almost palatable.

OK, enough with the name-calling. I should know better, but I can't help myself when it comes to someone like McCain.

Why don't the media hold conservatives like McCain to the same moral standards they hold non-conservatives (there aren't any liberals running for office in 2008). Perhaps because they know that conservatives will give them what they want: money! Your money! Tax dollars and corporate subsidies! The welfare the media don't want you to talk about!

The Media Matters website is a great resource that critiques the various media and is paying special attention to the media's love affair with John McCain:

We live in a "gotcha" media culture that revels in exposing the foibles and hypocrisies of our politicians. But one politician manages to escape this treatment, getting the benefit of the doubt and a positive spin for nearly everything he does: John McCain. Even during his temporary decline in popularity in 2007, the media continued to bolster him by lamenting his fate rather than criticizing the flip-flops and politicking that undermined his media-driven image as a "straight talker."

In Free Ride: John McCain and the Media, David Brock and Paul Waldman show how the media have enabled McCain's rise from the Keating Five savings-and-loan scandal to the underdog hero of the 2000 primaries to his roller-coaster run for the 2008 nomination. They illuminate how the press falls for McCain's "straight talk" and how the Arizona senator gets away with inconsistencies and misrepresentations for which the media skewer other politicians.


Media Matters promotes the book, and I recommend it. Click the link below to purchase it.



Dick Mac Recommends:

Free Ride: John McCain and the Media
David Brock, Paul Waldman




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