This is something I've written about a lot in terms of Hillary's coverage. Throughout most of this campaign so far her coverage has been awful.
They've simply ignored her on the issues she raises and talked about nothing but
1. Emailgate
2. Biden Speculation
3. Bernie's surging poll numbers
This has been The Narrative on Hillary since she announced her campaign pretty much. Greg Sargent had warned soon after she announced that without a strong primary opponent the media will take it upon itself to be her primary opponent.
However, media narratives do change. After all, in 2011 the narrative was that Biden was a gaffe machine that was literally such a drag for the President that many argued that he should step down and make way for: the very qualified and intelligent stateswoman Hillary Clinton. Back then Senate Republicans sang her praises-to spite President Obama.
http://lastmenandovermen.blogspot.com/2015/09/remember-when-media-wanted-obama-to.html
But clearly over the last week, this narrative has shifted abruptly-overnight, as Daily News Bin documents:
"This summer I said that the media was only singing doom and gloom for the Hillary Clinton campaign because “frontrunner in trouble” stories are good for ratings, and that at some point the media would turn positive on her because “frontrunner in trouble now making a comeback” stories are also good for ratings. I just didn’t think they’d turn positive toward her this soon. Suddenly the media likes Hillary again, and while there are a number of factors at play, I wonder if this is a matter of adjusting expectations ahead of her first debate."
http://www.dailynewsbin.com/opinion/why-the-media-suddenly-likes-hillary-clinton-again/22761/
Of course, the implication is unmistakable: could they be setting her up for a fall by raising her expectations? I take DNB seriously as these are folks that understand how politics is waged not how beautiful souls think it should be.
"To be fair, at least some of the shift in media sentiment can be lined up with the fact that Hillary has come out swinging over the past two weeks, taking bold stances and making bold television appearances even as the republicans screwed up on Benghazi, and they don’t want to be on wrong side of momentum. But there seems to be more at play here. Not only is the media now willing to write positive stories about her, they’re beginning to admit that she’s winning by a huge margin. Moreover, they’re finally turning subtly but noticeably negative on her chief rival Bernie Sanders."
If you want to trace the immediate catalyst, there's no way to mistake that: it was Kevin McCarthy. This shifted the ground night and day and really put the Emailgate thing on the back burner.
The first Benghazi ad ended up being for her.
"I like Bernie. I think he’s the kind of guy you want on your team, even though you don’t make him team captain. I think it’s fair that the media is now finally pointing out that his rhetoric is generic and that his ideas are vague and unrealistic. I don’t like that the media is suddenly springing stories aimed at making him out to be a senile old kook, which I don’t think he is. But they were always going to do this eventually. It’s interesting that they’ve chosen the week before the debate to go negative on him."
I don't agree with any ageist attacks. But I do think it's fair to point out that he doesn't really like being needled and pushed back on. If he's a real candidate for President that's part of the game. Hillary has taken this in spades.
If some coverage of him is unfair well almost all her coverage up to a week ago was unfair.
By the way even Lawrence Lessig the campaign finance reform guy has said he's unrealistic.
http://www.bloomberg.com/politics/articles/2015-08-11/lawrence-lessig-on-the-difference-between-him-and-bernie-sanders
Bernie forgets that while we may hate what the GOP Congress does or more like it doesn't do this is what their voters in their districts want them to-not-do.
Let's hope DNB is prophetic here:
"The media in general likes to have been right about things. Heck, I like to be right too. But it’s odd to me that just before the much-hyped Bernie Sanders faces his first real test in front of a national audience, the media is laying the groundwork for negativity toward him just as surely as it’s laying the groundwork for positivity toward Hillary. That tells me the media is expecting the majority of demcoratic viewers to be impressed by her, and be disappointed by him."
"That way once public sentiment shifts next week, they can point back to this week’s articles and say “See, we told you a week ago that Hillary Clinton was a real winner and Bernie Sanders was a weirdo.” They’ll just hope you don’t notice that they spent the three months before that telling you the opposite. Just as they hope you don’t notice that for all the talk of polls, Hillary’s lead is still vaguely in the same range as it was when all the “Hillary in trouble” headlines began."
Here is one big difference between Hillary and Bernie: she has gotten so much negative press including so much unfair that she knows how to deal with it.
Bernie doesn't seem to be a guy who likes when you call him out. Until now he's gotten a pass. Could this be changing soon?
They've simply ignored her on the issues she raises and talked about nothing but
1. Emailgate
2. Biden Speculation
3. Bernie's surging poll numbers
This has been The Narrative on Hillary since she announced her campaign pretty much. Greg Sargent had warned soon after she announced that without a strong primary opponent the media will take it upon itself to be her primary opponent.
However, media narratives do change. After all, in 2011 the narrative was that Biden was a gaffe machine that was literally such a drag for the President that many argued that he should step down and make way for: the very qualified and intelligent stateswoman Hillary Clinton. Back then Senate Republicans sang her praises-to spite President Obama.
http://lastmenandovermen.blogspot.com/2015/09/remember-when-media-wanted-obama-to.html
But clearly over the last week, this narrative has shifted abruptly-overnight, as Daily News Bin documents:
"This summer I said that the media was only singing doom and gloom for the Hillary Clinton campaign because “frontrunner in trouble” stories are good for ratings, and that at some point the media would turn positive on her because “frontrunner in trouble now making a comeback” stories are also good for ratings. I just didn’t think they’d turn positive toward her this soon. Suddenly the media likes Hillary again, and while there are a number of factors at play, I wonder if this is a matter of adjusting expectations ahead of her first debate."
http://www.dailynewsbin.com/opinion/why-the-media-suddenly-likes-hillary-clinton-again/22761/
Of course, the implication is unmistakable: could they be setting her up for a fall by raising her expectations? I take DNB seriously as these are folks that understand how politics is waged not how beautiful souls think it should be.
"To be fair, at least some of the shift in media sentiment can be lined up with the fact that Hillary has come out swinging over the past two weeks, taking bold stances and making bold television appearances even as the republicans screwed up on Benghazi, and they don’t want to be on wrong side of momentum. But there seems to be more at play here. Not only is the media now willing to write positive stories about her, they’re beginning to admit that she’s winning by a huge margin. Moreover, they’re finally turning subtly but noticeably negative on her chief rival Bernie Sanders."
If you want to trace the immediate catalyst, there's no way to mistake that: it was Kevin McCarthy. This shifted the ground night and day and really put the Emailgate thing on the back burner.
The first Benghazi ad ended up being for her.
"I like Bernie. I think he’s the kind of guy you want on your team, even though you don’t make him team captain. I think it’s fair that the media is now finally pointing out that his rhetoric is generic and that his ideas are vague and unrealistic. I don’t like that the media is suddenly springing stories aimed at making him out to be a senile old kook, which I don’t think he is. But they were always going to do this eventually. It’s interesting that they’ve chosen the week before the debate to go negative on him."
I don't agree with any ageist attacks. But I do think it's fair to point out that he doesn't really like being needled and pushed back on. If he's a real candidate for President that's part of the game. Hillary has taken this in spades.
If some coverage of him is unfair well almost all her coverage up to a week ago was unfair.
By the way even Lawrence Lessig the campaign finance reform guy has said he's unrealistic.
http://www.bloomberg.com/politics/articles/2015-08-11/lawrence-lessig-on-the-difference-between-him-and-bernie-sanders
Bernie forgets that while we may hate what the GOP Congress does or more like it doesn't do this is what their voters in their districts want them to-not-do.
Let's hope DNB is prophetic here:
"The media in general likes to have been right about things. Heck, I like to be right too. But it’s odd to me that just before the much-hyped Bernie Sanders faces his first real test in front of a national audience, the media is laying the groundwork for negativity toward him just as surely as it’s laying the groundwork for positivity toward Hillary. That tells me the media is expecting the majority of demcoratic viewers to be impressed by her, and be disappointed by him."
"That way once public sentiment shifts next week, they can point back to this week’s articles and say “See, we told you a week ago that Hillary Clinton was a real winner and Bernie Sanders was a weirdo.” They’ll just hope you don’t notice that they spent the three months before that telling you the opposite. Just as they hope you don’t notice that for all the talk of polls, Hillary’s lead is still vaguely in the same range as it was when all the “Hillary in trouble” headlines began."
Here is one big difference between Hillary and Bernie: she has gotten so much negative press including so much unfair that she knows how to deal with it.
Bernie doesn't seem to be a guy who likes when you call him out. Until now he's gotten a pass. Could this be changing soon?
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