Topic category:  Other/General

The winner of the "Bagdad Bob" award for delusional news is David Broder, the Washington Post political editor known as the Dean of American political reporters, for telling Trinity University students in San Antonio, Texas that he had "spent almost fifty years of [his] life covering campaigns with other people" and he doesn't "think there is a serious problem with ideological or political bias." Broder, 79, added that he does not perceive political bias among reporters of his generation or "find a problem with bias among [his] younger colleagues at all."

In reality, ideological or political bias has worsened. Thus, National Journal's Stuart Taylor recently acknowledged “a double standard driven by liberal bias at most major news organizations” and lamented that "[t]he media can no longer be trusted to provide accurate and fair campaign reporting and analysis.”

Wikipedia: “Double standards…violate the principle of justice known as impartiality, which is based on the assumption that the same standards should be applied to all people, without regard to subjective bias or favoritism based on social class, rank, ethnicity, gender or other distinction. A double standard violates this principle by holding different people accountable according to different standards.”

Journalists should be impartial and commentators should be fair, but with respect to the current presidential election, partiality, bias and favoritism seem to be the rule instead of the exception.

During the current campaign cycle, the media is infatuated with the idea of America electing its first black president (notwithstanding their candidate's lack of executive experience, lack of major legislative accomplishment and lack of military experience) and both reporting and commentating reflect that infatuation.

John Edwards, a former United States Senator from North Carolina and the 2004 Democrat vice presidential nominee, found that it was a bad time to be a white male from the South seeking the Democrat presidential nomination (and turned out to be profoundly undeserving). Being a white male from the South had won him a vice presidential nomination and worked well for Jimmy Carter of Georgia and Bill Clinton of Arkansas (twice each). In 2008, however, the question for Democrats became whether to choose a male who identified himself as an African-American who would transcend race (rookie United States Senator from Illinois and 2008 Democrat presidential nominee Barack Hussein Obama, Jr.) or a white female who would be ready on Day One (junior United States Senator from New York and former First Lady of both the United States and Arkansas Hillary Rodham Clinton). The mainstream media generally favored the Obama narrative and so he captured the 2008 Democrat presidential nomination as the mainstream media not only did not full scerutinize him, but played along with the Obama theme that the Clintons were playing the race card against him. In fact, race became a net plus for Obama while gender probably was a net minus for the Lady with the Pantsuit Collection.

Caryl Rivers, a Boston University journalism professor and the author of "Selling Anxiety: How the News Media Scare Women," explained it exquisitely in a March 3, 2008 Boston Globe article very appropriately titled “The double standard.”

Ms. Rivers:

“THE ‘SATURDAY Night Live’ skit that showed reporters fawning over Barack Obama and tossing him puffball questions, while grilling Hillary Clinton like a felony suspect, wasn't too far off the mark.”

The reporters as a group supported Obama over Clinton then and Obama over McCain now.

Ms. Rivers:

“The media loved Hillary when she put her hand on Obama's and said it was a privilege to be on the same podium; they hated her when she slammed him for giving out what she called misleading information on her healthcare plan. (After googling ‘shrill’ and ‘Hillary’ after that encounter, I stopped at 20 pages.)

“At the same time, the news media have gone into a deep swoon over Barack. Washington Post media critic Howard Kurtz said, ‘Look, I haven't seen a politician get this kind of walk-on-water coverage since Colin Powell a dozen years ago flirted with making a run for the White House. I mean, it is amazing.’”

It’s the shameless pursuit of an agenda instead of the truth.

Like McCain and UNlike Obama, Powell had put in a career of service to his country before pursuing a political career and thereby earned trust from the American people. From whom would YOU prefer to buy a used car--McCain or Powell, or Obama?

And were you surprised when Democrat Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid charged that 2008 Republican vice presidential nominee and Alaska Governor Sarah Palin was shrill?

Ms. Rivers:

“Hillary's credentials have been the subject of intense scrutiny. Weeks ago, MSNBC's Chris Matthews dissed her as a cheated-on wife for whom voters feel sorry. ‘Let's not forget, and I'll be brutal,’ Matthews said, ‘the reason she's a US senator, the reason she's a candidate for president, the reason she may be a front-runner, is that her husband messed around.’

“It's certainly fair to question to what degree Hillary's experience as first lady should count on her resume. But the media in general have not given as much critical scrutiny to Obama's record. As Gloria Steinem noted in her much-discussed New York Times op-ed piece, what if Obama had been a woman, with the same resume? A female candidate with his resume would have been laughed at if she said she wanted to run for president.”

Unsurprising, since the biased members of the media think they have big minds and that consistency is “the hobgoblin of little minds, adored by little statewsmen and philosophers and dovines, they are laughing at Palin as a vice presidential candidate, even though she has more executive experience that either Obama or his vice presidential nominee, Senator Joseph Robinette Biden, Jr. of Delaware (as well as NOT reporting on Obama’s exective experience as founding president and chairman of the board of directors of the Chicago Annenberg Challenge from 1995–1999).

The media did not make racism a problem for Obama, but was the media sexist?

Ms. Rivers:

”…fortunately, media coverage of the campaign has been largely free of racism, the same can't be said for sexism. On the blog Mediacrit, Ashleigh Crowther noted the widespread coverage of Hillary's laugh. Patrick Healy of The New York Times dubbed it the ‘Clinton Cackle,’ Frank Rich of the Times called it ‘calculating,’ and pundit Dick Morris called Clinton's laugh ‘loud, inappropriate, and mirthless. . . . A scary sound that was somewhere between a cackle and a screech.’

“And then there was Hillary's cleavage. When she appeared on the Senate floor with a modest décolletage, you would have thought Pamela Anderson had wandered into the chamber in a bustier. According to Media Matters for America, from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. on July 30, MSNBC gave 23 minutes and 42 seconds to segments discussing Clinton's cleavage. CNN devoted 3 minutes and 54 seconds to the story, while Fox News devoted none.

“CNBC's John Harwood thought it was all part of some master plan. ‘When you look at the calculation that goes into everything that Hillary Clinton does, for her to argue that she was not aware of what she was communicating by her dress is like Barry Bonds saying he thought he was rubbing down with flaxseed oil,’ he said on ‘Meet the Press.’

“Then, of course, came the ‘pimp’ episode. MSNBC reporter David Shuster suggested on the air that the Clinton campaign had ‘pimped out’ 27-year-old Chelsea Clinton by having her place phone calls to Democratic Party superdelegates.”

That was as low as the media sunk, until the media discovered Sarah Palin and her daughter Bristol!

The media also suddenly discovered that Senator McCain is a septuagenarian!

In the race for the Republican presidential nomination, age was not an issue. But as soon as McCain became the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, age became a big issue and The New York Times (which had endorsed McCain for the Republican nomination) ran a scurrilous front-page story insinuating that McCain had an illicit sexual relationship with a female lobbyist.

Have you seen any scurrilous stories about Obama in The New York Times?

Of course not!

In fact, although The New York Times officially endorsed Hillary for the Democrat presidential nomination, it looked away from instead of into Obama’s relationship with Rev. Jeremiah A. “God damn America” Wright, Jr.

Rev. Wright was supposed to have given the invocation when Obama announced his presidential campaign early in 2007, but he was dis-invited.

THAT was newsworthy and The Times noted it, but included it in an article inside the paper that conveyed the message that Obama was a moderate who had risked offending black preachers.

The Times article reported that Obama had explained to Rev. Wright that Rev. Wright’s “rough” sermons had prompted the dis-invitation.

The Times did not explain what “rough” meant and more than a year passed before Fox News began to play excerpts from videotapes of Rev. Wright’s sermons that did explain plenty.

But by that time, it was too late to stop the Obama Express (not to be confused with The Straight Talk Express).

Interestingly, McCain never exaggerates his stellar military credentials, while Obama regularly identifies himself as a law professor when he was a lecturer (and then a senior lecturer), but never a professor and the media plays along.

If those videotapes of Rev. Wright's "greatest hits" (on America) had been played nationally in March of 2007 instead of a year later (AFTER Super Tuesday), Hillary would be the 2008 Democrat presidential nominee.

The mainstream media has been investigating the life of 2008 Republican vice presidential nominee and Alaska Governor Sarah Palin and carrying baseless rumors about her.

If the mainstream media had scrutinized Obama and publicized the truth about Obams’s relationships with Professor William “domestic terrorist” Ayers, ACORN, Rev. Wright, Father Michael Pfleger, Rev. Louis Farrakhan and his Million Man March, and felon Tony Rezko, Hillary would be the 2008 Democrat presidential nominee.

Of course, the media is spinning the financial crisis as a Republican problem and the Democrats as the saviors.

Frank Salvato was not amused: “Now I know how Elvis Presley felt when he shot his television! Watching Barney Frank (D-MA) and Chris Dodd (D-CT) pontificate about how they are going to save the country in it’s time of financial crisis made me nauseous. How is it that these two charlatans can fain concern when they are among the principles responsible for getting the taxpayers into this mess?”

Those two charlatans ARE concerned (albeit for themselves), Frank! Failed Fanny Mae and Freddie Mac were very good to them (as well as Obama) and Countrywide gave that preferred loan to Senator Dodd (who then feigned not realizing that had gotten special treatment on how much he had to pay). If the truth becomes generally known, they would be embarrassed!

Mr. Salvato: “Now, as we approach the presidential election of 2008 we witness two Democrat political opportunists trying feverishly to rewrite the history of their culpability with regard to the current financial crisis so as to hang the blame on the Bush Administration and the campaign of John McCain. Truth be told, as dishonest as the mainstream media is these days they may just get away with it.”

That’s a scary thought! Like a politician in a position of power who has been bought.

Mr. Salvato:

”…The current financial quagmire in which our nation is firmly planted started, arguably, when Bill Clinton, came up with his ‘National Homeownership Strategy.’ This financial scheme, most likely geared toward bolstering Bubba’s legacy as a man who ‘cared about the little people,’ promoted insanely low down payments and coerced lenders into giving mortgage loans to first-time buyers with unstable financing and incomes.

”…Barney Frank (D-MA), as Chairman of the House Financial Services Committee and Chris Dodd (D-CT), Chairman of the Senate Banking, Housing & Urban Affairs Committee had ample knowledge of President Bush’s and Senator McCain’s concerns about the need for oversight reform for the financial markets, yet they chose to play the roles of obstructers instead of reformers. They had the power all along to affect reforms for the financial oversight process and they did nothing.”

Not exactly nothing. They allowed the financial crisis to break at what seems to be a good time for Democrats (if the truth is concealed instead of revealed).

America’s Founders would be disgusted.

Michael J. Gaynor

Biography - Michael J. Gaynor

Michael J. Gaynor has been practicing law in New York since 1973. A former partner at Fulton, Duncombe & Rowe and Gaynor & Bass, he is a solo practitioner admitted to practice in New York state and federal courts and an Association of the Bar of the City of New York member.

Gaynor graduated magna cum laude, with Honors in Social Science, from Hofstra University's New College, and received his J.D. degree from St. John's Law School, where he won the American Jurisprudence Award in Evidence and served as an editor of the Law Review and the St. Thomas More Institute for Legal Research. He wrote on the Pentagon Papers case for the Review and obscenity law for The Catholic Lawyer and edited the Law Review's commentary on significant developments in New York law.

The day after graduating, Gaynor joined the Fulton firm, where he focused on litigation and corporate law. In 1997 Gaynor and Emily Bass formed Gaynor & Bass and then conducted a general legal practice, emphasizing litigation, and represented corporations, individuals and a New York City labor union. Notably, Gaynor & Bass prevailed in the Second Circuit in a seminal copyright infringement case, Tasini v. New York Times, against newspaper and magazine publishers and Lexis-Nexis. The U.S. Supreme Court affirmed, 7 to 2, holding that the copyrights of freelance writers had been infringed when their work was put online without permission or compensation.

Gaynor currently contributes regularly to www.MichNews.com, www.RenewAmerica.com, www.WebCommentary.com, www.PostChronicle.com and www.therealitycheck.org and has contributed to many other websites. He has written extensively on political and religious issues, notably the Terry Schiavo case, the Duke "no rape" case, ACORN and canon law, and appeared as a guest on television and radio. He was acknowledged in Until Proven Innocent, by Stuart Taylor and KC Johnson, and Culture of Corruption, by Michelle Malkin. He appeared on "Your World With Cavuto" to promote an eBay boycott that he initiated and "The World Over With Raymond Arroyo" (EWTN) to discuss the legal implications of the Schiavo case. On October 22, 2008, Gaynor was the first to report that The New York Times had killed an Obama/ACORN expose on which a Times reporter had been working with ACORN whistleblower Anita MonCrief.

Gaynor's email address is gaynormike@aol.com.