If McCain embraces a lunatic, and the media doesn’t care, does it really have an impact?
from The Carpetbagger Report
A few days ago, in light of John McCain’s embrace of radical evangelist John Hagee, Time’s Joe Klein argued that McCain has a choice to make: “A McCain rejection of Hagee’s support would be seen as another sign of weakness by Rush and such. An acceptance of Hagee’s support would spell trouble for McCain with catholics and sane people everywhere. So, what’s it to be, Senator?”
I’d hoped that McCain would eventually have to answer that question. Josh Marshall notes today that this isn’t going to happen.
Let’s note that Sen. McCain has decided to hang tough with his embrace of anti-Catholic, anti-Semitic Pastor John Hagee. And the major papers and cable news outlets have decided to give him a pass.
I didn’t think it was possible, but that is most certainly the current dynamic. McCain sought out Hagee, McCain traveled to appear alongside Hagee, and confronted with Hagee’s anti-Catholic, anti-Semitic, anti-Muslim, anti-gay, and anti-woman record, McCain didn’t care. Given the inordinate media interest in Farrakhan’s kind words for Barack Obama — a weak comparison, given that Obama didn’t reach out to Farrakhan, and wants nothing to do with him — it seemed unlikely the media could justifiably give McCain a pass on this one.
But that’s exactly what’s happened. I checked Nexis a few minutes ago, to see if any of the major newspapers had done stories about the Hagee controversy. The combined number of articles from the New York Times, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, USA Today, Wall Street Journal, and Boston Globe is zero. Literally, not one. In two instances, the WaPo and the NYT made brief references to the controversy in round-ups or in articles about something else, but none of these dailies ran stand-alone items about McCain cozying up to a lunatic.
What’s especially odd about this is the lengths news outlets had to go in order to ignore the story.
(Continued here.)
A few days ago, in light of John McCain’s embrace of radical evangelist John Hagee, Time’s Joe Klein argued that McCain has a choice to make: “A McCain rejection of Hagee’s support would be seen as another sign of weakness by Rush and such. An acceptance of Hagee’s support would spell trouble for McCain with catholics and sane people everywhere. So, what’s it to be, Senator?”
I’d hoped that McCain would eventually have to answer that question. Josh Marshall notes today that this isn’t going to happen.
Let’s note that Sen. McCain has decided to hang tough with his embrace of anti-Catholic, anti-Semitic Pastor John Hagee. And the major papers and cable news outlets have decided to give him a pass.
I didn’t think it was possible, but that is most certainly the current dynamic. McCain sought out Hagee, McCain traveled to appear alongside Hagee, and confronted with Hagee’s anti-Catholic, anti-Semitic, anti-Muslim, anti-gay, and anti-woman record, McCain didn’t care. Given the inordinate media interest in Farrakhan’s kind words for Barack Obama — a weak comparison, given that Obama didn’t reach out to Farrakhan, and wants nothing to do with him — it seemed unlikely the media could justifiably give McCain a pass on this one.
But that’s exactly what’s happened. I checked Nexis a few minutes ago, to see if any of the major newspapers had done stories about the Hagee controversy. The combined number of articles from the New York Times, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, USA Today, Wall Street Journal, and Boston Globe is zero. Literally, not one. In two instances, the WaPo and the NYT made brief references to the controversy in round-ups or in articles about something else, but none of these dailies ran stand-alone items about McCain cozying up to a lunatic.
What’s especially odd about this is the lengths news outlets had to go in order to ignore the story.
(Continued here.)
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1 Comments:
The talking points were distributed … Tony Snow did O’Reily’s radio program yesterday and he hit ‘m hard … lobbyists and religious endorsements.
McCain ..no … Obama.
Who will get the Catholic vote this fall ?
Kerry was berated by the Catholic Church for him not adhering to the church’s philosophies … but this year, Catholics seem not to have anyone in the race, but so instead of being on the attack, they are being attacked … I believe that John Hagee previously endorsed Mike Huckabee … will anti-Catholic author Tim Lahaye also reverse course and now switch from Huckabee to McCain?
And if McCain picks Pawlenty as VP, will there be a reaction since Pawlenty was raised Catholic and now is a member of the Evangelical Wooddale Church ? Some “Latin Mass” voters never forgive those who reject the faith in which they were raised.
Then again, McCain would take anybody’s endorsement that agrees that we need to attack Iran.
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