I am fed up with the complete failure of the MSM to function. Even NPR seems to have lost its way...
I just sent a letter (rant) to Neal Conan who's program Talk of the Nation airs afternoons on NPR in my town. Today's show was an all-time-low IMHO. Conan decided to engage his listeners in a discussion of what kinds of comments cross the line in political campaigns. He cited both campaign attacks and comments from supporters, specifically at rallies. I was incensed when he compared off-color jokes about McCain's age and Palin's stupidity with the hateful and violent calls coming from the McCain rallies.
I took him to task on this and other flagrant, idiotic comments in my letter. Read it below the fold and tell me what you think.
Dear Neal Conan:
Your program today was simply an embarrassment. I sat in my car listening in utter disbelief as you asked listeners and commentators, "Where is the line when it comes to ugly campaigning?" You went on to say that things had turned sour on both sides, listing some examples of the tit for tat, wondering what the candidates should do differently.
I find it deeply disturbing that journalists such as yourself, along with the McCain campaign, find it reasonable to compare ugly comments and jokes about age and sex with violent threats and labels that rile up those still consumed with racial hatred.
There is no doubt that anyone running for public office better have a thick skin. We all know that campaigns get dirty. As seasoned campaign advisor Joe Trippi reminds us in his book The Revolution will not be Televised:
In 1800, John Adams called his rival Thomas Jefferson a pagan, and atheist and a traitor. His campaign said that if Jefferson was elected, "murder, robbery, rape, adultery, and incest would be openly taught and practiced."
Of course all candidates must be scrutinized in our effort to discern who will best serve our nation. Of course many personal issues must be brought to light. And of course, some of that will result in ugliness.
But this election year is unique. For the first time in our history we have a candidate who is also a person of color with a real chance of winning the highest office in the land. Why should this require a more watchful eye over the public discourse? Why is this different than two white guys spewing ugliness at each other? History holds the answer.
This nation’s history includes every manner of violence toward people of color. In the not-so-distant past, angry mobs dragging people of color out into public places or into dark woods to be beaten and killed. Remember Jasper, Texas just 10 short years ago? Three white men attacked James Byrd, a black man, and tied him to their truck. They dragged him to his death over several miles. Why? Because he was black. It still makes me sick to think of it.
Lest we forget its horror, this from CNN’s story on the attack:
The battered body of James Byrd Jr., 49, was found Sunday, the day after he was last seen apparently hitching a ride home from a party.
"It was real brutal and real serious," said Jasper County District Attorney Guy James Gray. "The body came apart."
The sad truth is that this kind of hate still exists. Gov. Palin and Sen. McCain must realize they can’t control what people in their rallies might find themselves emboldened to do once their veiled comments, perhaps unwittingly, give these haters legitimacy.
We like to think of ourselves as civilized and people like those three men in Jasper as aberrations. Unfortunately, hatred can boil just below the surface for years and years in people, waiting patiently for the tiniest opening, the tiniest provocation, or perhaps Joe’s empty six-pack, to be unleashed. It is YOUR job as a journalist and commentator to remind the McCain camp of this, to remind America of this.
Trying to compare the calls to kill Barack Obama to the nickname Caribou Barbie, or comments about McCain’s age is beyond ridiculous; it is irresponsible. When was the last time you saw and angry mob run out and attack old people just because they are old? While we women have been and are still abused by men, no one believes that some sexist man is going to beat up Sarah Palin because he thinks she's an "uppity woman."
How is it possible that you don’t know the answer to your own question? How is it that you cannot make that answer known to others? Death threats cross the line, lies cross the line, especially lies that breed hatred and contempt.
The media used to function as the conscience of this nation, but no more. Where is the sense of decency? Where is the backbone? Where is the free media that took down a President for the quaint little crime of wire tapping and breaking and entering?
For many months the McCain camp has done nothing to stop their surrogates and supporters from lying about Sen. Obama - about his faith (he’s a Muslim) about his citizenship (he’s not American), and his education (he was schooled in a radical Wahabbist in Indonesia). And recently, that theme has become a central tenant of the campaign with Gov. Palin lying about the quality and context of Obama’s relationship with Bill Ayers. Will you not hold them accountable for the mood that gets generated as a result?
You heard the McCain supporter who called into your show repeat the lies she has heard, many directly from the McCain campaign, and you did not correct her. Only as an afterthought did you think to tell your listeners that she stated factual inaccuracies.
When Obama supporters pounced on Governor Palin’s daughter and her pregnancy as a way of discrediting the Governor, Barack Obama said forcefully and repeatedly that families are off limits. While I agree and am proud of his sense of decency, clearly derogatory comments about personal behavior are in no way equal to those that incite racial hatred and violence. Furthermore, this particular family matter does have policy implications, as Palin is an advocate of "abstinence only" programs, which obviously don’t work.
You brought up Obama’s supporters picking on John McCain because he is old. Sen. McCain's age is germane to the question of a McCain presidency because he has chosen someone that people across party lines think of as unprepared to serve as President. And as for Palin, she plays up her folksy roots as part of her appeal, saying she’s qualified in part because she’s a hockey mom/pit bull with lipstick. She winks during debates and uses her down-home charm to deflect questions she does not wish to or cannot answer. Is it fair game to question her seriousness as a candidate? Absolutely. To assume this questioning is occurring simply because she’s an attractive woman is an insult to thinking Americans everywhere.
More attempts to make nonsensical comparisons include your comments on Ayers, Rezco and the Keating 5. Sen. Obama may have showed poor judgment in attending a meetings and serving on a Board with a past criminal, or even taking money from a criminal not yet caught, but he himself committed no crime. John McCain was the subject of a Congressional investigation for his own unethical behavior in relationship to Keating. Because of John McCain’s personal actions as part of the Keating 5, the regulatory investigation of Keating was stopped, and a couple of years later the American people were stuck with a $2.6 billion bill and 20,000 people lost their savings – a problem we are seeing exacerbated many unregulated years later. That is substantively different, is it not?
But you and others in your profession seem completely unable to grasp how one is an issue of guilty by association, and the other an issue of guilty by one’s own actions.
How much more journalistic weakness must we endure? How long will you sit idly by and treat the unfolding McCain campaign narrative like it is a sitcom storyline rather than the dangerous provocation of confused and intolerant people who have been encouraged to be scared of the "others" in our world.
God forbid we should suffer some kind of unspeakable loss.
It is my fervent hope, and daily prayer, that journalists and commentators like you will never have to rue the day you shirked your responsibilities to our nation by downplaying the increasing hate-speak and calls for violence surfacing at McCain/Palin events.
Signed your no-longer-so-loyal listener,
A 41-year-old white woman for Obama
I submit that without a free and unbiased press democracy cannot be sustained. It is up to us now.
Our major mistakes have not been the result of democracy, but of the erosion of democracy made possible by the mass media’s manipulation of public opinion. Robert Cirino