The
New York Times headline gets at something important:
Early in 2016 race, Clinton's toughest foe appears to be the news media. In that article, Patrick Healy reports that:
“Democratic primary voters may let her have the presidential nomination without a struggle, but the press won’t,” said Robert Shrum, a Democratic strategist who has advised several presidential candidates, including Al Gore in 2000 and John Kerry in 2004. “The press will wage a kind of primary campaign against her, at least try to bring her down a peg or two. In the end, she will be the nominee, but she has to go through it first.”
In this, political reporters elevate themselves above likely Democratic primary candidates like former Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley—him they ignore while lamenting Clinton's seeming inevitability and doing their best to bring her down that peg or two.
One excellent example of such coverage comes from the Washington Post's Philip Rucker and Paul Kane, who begin "Senior Democrats are increasingly worried that Hillary Rodham Clinton is not ready to run for president" before proceeding to an article in which the direct quotes from named sources basically say that it is now slightly past the time when Clinton needs a full campaign team. (Which she is assembling as we speak.) It's 13 paragraphs of named sources saying "it would be good if she had a campaign," unnamed sources hinting at things more dire, and tired allusions to the 1990s before you come to this:
Nevertheless, Clinton is the unquestioned presumptive front-runner for the Democratic nomination, and polling suggests she is weathering the bad news cycle so far. An NBC News-Wall Street Journal poll released Monday finds her favorable rating at 44 percent, compared with 36 percent unfavorable. Among likely Democratic primary voters, 86 percent said they could see themselves supporting Clinton. Just 13 percent said they could not.
Let's be clear: Clinton's popularity with Democrats doesn't mean she shouldn't be challenged on substance. It is, however, an empirical point against all of the screaming "Hillary in trouble" headlines and blind quotes that political reporters have gone in for so enthusiastically. And that enthusiasm is why the Salon headline gets it even more right than the
New York Times one:
The media sh**t-show is back: Why coverage of Hillary Clinton has been an embarrassment.