Equal Coverage Would Be Nice
July 28, 2016 at 4:25 p.m.
By Gary [email protected]
It’s always fun to watch how national media characterize political events.
This year, the double standards in the coverage of the Republican National Convention are glaringly obvious.
There’s lots of pejorative language by anchors. The GOP message is “divisive,” or “nutty” or contained “intense animus.” The speakers were “lunatics” or “dangerous.”
Matt Lauer, host of NBC’s “Today” show, had an interview with Trump. Well, it was more like a lecture than an interview. He told Trump he needed to tone things down. He all but demanded Trump vow to reign in the speakers at the convention.
“There’s been so much violence in the country in the last couple of weeks. People are on edge, they’re tense. You add to that the passion that comes with political debate and there are people who are truly afraid that things could boil over here in Cleveland,” Lauer said.
And then: “Would you be willing to make a pledge to speak to everyone involved in this convention and say, ‘Please tone down the rhetoric’? ... So can you say to the people who are going to take to that podium this week, ‘No personal attacks, no vitriol, keep it civil’?”
Hmm. I guess that’s the job of newspeople these days. Coaching the candidates.
Let’s see what advice Hillary gets next week.
Then there’s Chris Cuomo, the host of CNN’s New Day, who basically got a little mad at Republican talking head Margaret Hoover over the Trump campaign’s unwillingness to readily admit that Melania Trump’s speech was partially plagiarized from Michelle Obama’s.
Cuomo kept badgering Hoover over her reluctance to discuss the plagiarism and inferred an equivalence to Hillary’s email scandal.
Here’s what Cuomo said: “But lying matters. If you lie small, you'll lie big in politics. Look back in the Iraq war that Donald Trump is such a big fan of, what happened with the yellow cake, it was about lying. Weapons of mass destruction was about lying. You’re banging on the e-mail situation not because classified information got sent, because it didn't in any real way and we all know that, but it's about lying. How is that not communicated by this situation?”
Huh?
Classified information didn’t get sent in any real way? And we all know it? This is a news guy?
Anybody with even the most modest understanding of Hillary’s email situation knows that’s not true. The director of the FBI not only said classified information was sent, he speculated it got hacked by foreign bad actors.
So while the news guy is chastising his Republican guests about Republicans lying, he’s lying.
I suppose there’s another explanation. Maybe the CNN New Day news guy just isn’t up on current events. Maybe that’s it.
Even so, why would you equate a convention speech with an FBI investigation?
It seems to me that Melania’s speech probably was plagiarized. And plagiarism is wrong, right?
Right.
But the news guys on CNN apparently seem to think that plagiarism is OK as long as you admit it.
I actually watched a couple anchors discussing it. First, they showed video of Melania’s speech next to Michelle’s speech and there were some very similar passages that clearly appeared to have been lifted.
The anchors shared with viewers just how dishonest plagiarism is. They also said the incident was evidence that the Trump campaign was disorganized and out of control. Then they extrapolated their own analysis to opine that, of course, if you can’t organize and control your campaign, you can’t possibly organize and control the White House.
For balance, the crack news team on CNN then mentioned a plagiarism incident involving Barack Obama. In 2008, Obama stole parts of then-Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick’s “just words” speech.
But that was not a big deal because Obama admitted it. He admitted it, apologized for it and moved on, the anchors said.
“That’s the difference,” one anchor said.
The coverage bears out that mindset. CNN – literally – talked of little else all day Tuesday. I would be willing to bet Obama’s plagiarism event garnered no more than a few mentions.
Nevermind that Melania isn’t running for anything and Obama was a candidate.
And apparently, in the world of CNN, it’s OK to plagiarize as long as you admit it once somebody calls you out. Good to know. All you college kids, be sure and tell your prof that after you plagiarize your term paper.
It’s not that these issues don’t deserve coverage, they do. But they deserve equal coverage.
It should be good fun to watch the effusive coverage of the progressive, positive, uplifting, unified and inspiring Democratic convention next week.[[In-content Ad]]
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It’s always fun to watch how national media characterize political events.
This year, the double standards in the coverage of the Republican National Convention are glaringly obvious.
There’s lots of pejorative language by anchors. The GOP message is “divisive,” or “nutty” or contained “intense animus.” The speakers were “lunatics” or “dangerous.”
Matt Lauer, host of NBC’s “Today” show, had an interview with Trump. Well, it was more like a lecture than an interview. He told Trump he needed to tone things down. He all but demanded Trump vow to reign in the speakers at the convention.
“There’s been so much violence in the country in the last couple of weeks. People are on edge, they’re tense. You add to that the passion that comes with political debate and there are people who are truly afraid that things could boil over here in Cleveland,” Lauer said.
And then: “Would you be willing to make a pledge to speak to everyone involved in this convention and say, ‘Please tone down the rhetoric’? ... So can you say to the people who are going to take to that podium this week, ‘No personal attacks, no vitriol, keep it civil’?”
Hmm. I guess that’s the job of newspeople these days. Coaching the candidates.
Let’s see what advice Hillary gets next week.
Then there’s Chris Cuomo, the host of CNN’s New Day, who basically got a little mad at Republican talking head Margaret Hoover over the Trump campaign’s unwillingness to readily admit that Melania Trump’s speech was partially plagiarized from Michelle Obama’s.
Cuomo kept badgering Hoover over her reluctance to discuss the plagiarism and inferred an equivalence to Hillary’s email scandal.
Here’s what Cuomo said: “But lying matters. If you lie small, you'll lie big in politics. Look back in the Iraq war that Donald Trump is such a big fan of, what happened with the yellow cake, it was about lying. Weapons of mass destruction was about lying. You’re banging on the e-mail situation not because classified information got sent, because it didn't in any real way and we all know that, but it's about lying. How is that not communicated by this situation?”
Huh?
Classified information didn’t get sent in any real way? And we all know it? This is a news guy?
Anybody with even the most modest understanding of Hillary’s email situation knows that’s not true. The director of the FBI not only said classified information was sent, he speculated it got hacked by foreign bad actors.
So while the news guy is chastising his Republican guests about Republicans lying, he’s lying.
I suppose there’s another explanation. Maybe the CNN New Day news guy just isn’t up on current events. Maybe that’s it.
Even so, why would you equate a convention speech with an FBI investigation?
It seems to me that Melania’s speech probably was plagiarized. And plagiarism is wrong, right?
Right.
But the news guys on CNN apparently seem to think that plagiarism is OK as long as you admit it.
I actually watched a couple anchors discussing it. First, they showed video of Melania’s speech next to Michelle’s speech and there were some very similar passages that clearly appeared to have been lifted.
The anchors shared with viewers just how dishonest plagiarism is. They also said the incident was evidence that the Trump campaign was disorganized and out of control. Then they extrapolated their own analysis to opine that, of course, if you can’t organize and control your campaign, you can’t possibly organize and control the White House.
For balance, the crack news team on CNN then mentioned a plagiarism incident involving Barack Obama. In 2008, Obama stole parts of then-Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick’s “just words” speech.
But that was not a big deal because Obama admitted it. He admitted it, apologized for it and moved on, the anchors said.
“That’s the difference,” one anchor said.
The coverage bears out that mindset. CNN – literally – talked of little else all day Tuesday. I would be willing to bet Obama’s plagiarism event garnered no more than a few mentions.
Nevermind that Melania isn’t running for anything and Obama was a candidate.
And apparently, in the world of CNN, it’s OK to plagiarize as long as you admit it once somebody calls you out. Good to know. All you college kids, be sure and tell your prof that after you plagiarize your term paper.
It’s not that these issues don’t deserve coverage, they do. But they deserve equal coverage.
It should be good fun to watch the effusive coverage of the progressive, positive, uplifting, unified and inspiring Democratic convention next week.[[In-content Ad]]
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