Media bias?

Against a Republican candidate?

When that candidate is the only consistent conservative?

Say it ain't so!

But nonetheless, I think there is a clear pattern.  What the mainstream media reports is often quite different from what actually happened.

Case in point:

There was a GOP debate recently.  Actual, real, conservative Republicans who watched the debate were energized by Fred Thompson.  What did ABC news have to say?  It was a tantrum.

Roger Simon, a "journalist" for the Politico, covered a recent campaign stop by Fred Thompson.  If you only read his piece, you'd think Thompson was some sort of evil Grinch, or maybe even Dick Cheney.  But if you happened to see a video of the event, you'd think differently.  But unfortunately, more people are likely to pick up the Politico story and pass it on as truth.  Like those non-fact-checking fools at New Republic...

How about CNN reporting on Fred's answer to the Confederate Flag question in the YouTube debate?  You have to read about it second hand, because CNN took down the original.  But take a look at that photo captured in the previous link: is CNN going out of its way to paint Fred in a negative light?

How about all the pundits who say Thompson is lazy and not really campaigning?  Are they actually looking at his schedule?  Are they actually comparing it to other candidates?  Well, the big news sources like the NYT and ABC might not... but someone is.  However, the lazy talk sticks.

Even conservative Republicans are getting their digs in on Fred.  Like a few weeks back, when the FOX News "all star" panel of Fred Barnes, Nina Easton, and Charles Krauthammer - three people who, for the most part, agree with virtually all of Fred's platform - lambasted him as a washed up candidate... despite his being in second place in national polls.

Why?

I think it is simple: they don't want him to win.

In the case of liberals, the reasoning is obvious.  Liberals like to attack conservatives.  But why are conservatives so eager to paint Fred in the worst light, even when facts get in the way?  I think it is because so many conservatives in the punditocracy got invested in this race ages ago, before Fred entered.  They found their Giulianis and their Romneys and they made commitments to their candidates.  When Fred came along late, he shook up things.  Rather than these folks admit they were silly to become so rigidly enamored of their pet candidates months - or years - before the "serious" campaigning started, it was easier to just set off on a vendetta of personal destruction against the candidate who had the nerve to enter the race at the appropriate time, on his own terms.

Too bad.

If the day comes when Barack Obama wipes up the electoral college floor with Mike Huckabee, we can blame all the "experts" who decided, for one reason or another, that Fred Thompson wasn't really a good candidate - even though, by all first hand accounts, he is.

Hopefully it won't come to that.  This is the era of the new media.  In earlier days, an article like Simon's would get picked up and copied everywhere with no one at all to challenge it.  Shoddy reporting by CNN would be all anyone saw.  Now, we have bloggers furiously providing primary source evidence to the contrary.  I just hope it is enough to counter the "common wisdom."

I'm just sick of the absolute bias and complete lack of objective, factual reporting by the MSM.  After Rathergate in 2004, I hoped things would get better.  They have, a little, but the problems are still there - and right now, they seem to be stacking up against Fred Thompson.

Comments

[Patrick Joubert Conlon]

I expected the negative reporting from the regular MSM but I was disgusted that Fox also did it. I think you've nailed it - they had already picked their candidate. It was obvious that Roger Ailes of Fox had definitely already picked Rudy.

[Gullyborg]

With Rudy falling below the most un-Rudy-like candidate, I wonder how the MSM Rudybots will react?

Will they run a scorched Earth campaign against Huck to get Rudy back on top?

Or will they look for a surging alternative like McCain?

[PD Quig]

Thompson's a good guy, but frankly he lost me with his Hamlet-like entrance into the race. Then he stumbled in several early appearances, which cooled enough people who were otherwise looking for the conservative in the Republican woodpile. Unfortunately (and inexplicably to my way of viewing the world) a sizeable portion of voters who should have been in Fred's camp flowed to Huckabee Hound. How people calling themselves "conservative" could support Huckabee is a mystery to me. Evidently they don't read much.

[Right as Rain]

We shouldn't whine about "MSM Bias"--the bias of the MSM is toward conventional wisdom. Sometimes that hurts our side, but it often helps our side--Hilary is cold, Al Gore makes stuff up, John Kerry is humorless, the Democrat Party is full of wimps.

I haven't been impressed with Fred Thompson's campaign so far. That's not "MSM Bias", it's his campaign not doing a very good job, and helping to create a conventional wisdom that he's lazy.

[Sakaki]

And it's these idiots like the guy above me who think they need to be pizzazzed in order to vote for someone.

My message to them: Get off your asses, start researching. Thompson is consistent. These others are not.

[Gullyborg]

What do you want Fred to do? Come to your house and dance for you?

[Michael]

Please, take the "Fred is lazy, I'm not impressed" narrative out behind the barn and shoot it. Sakaki and Gullyborg nailed it: this isn't entertainment. We are looking for someone to lead on solving problems.

I always thought conservatives looked at content while liberals were all about style. If you can't get with Fred's thoughtful positions, check yourself. His report on reducing government waste is one example of a grown-up thinking about a problem and coming up with a workable solution.

It takes balls to come up with a Social Security solution. Fred seems tough enough to lead while he is gripping the "third rail" of American politics.

[Gullyborg]

Besides, I think Fred is the most entertaining, hands down (pa dump bump!)

[Sakaki]

I just do not want that damn Huckabee to be the nominee, because then I may just have to vote for a Democrat to kill his chances.

I'd rather just nuke Arkansas and get it over with...except for Bensonville. Wal-Mart's headquarters needs to stay. And Texarkana.