Saint John McCain
Neal Gabler takes to the pages of The New York Times to give us the rundown on why John McCain is the favorite Presidential candidate of the media:
While other candidates have tried to schmooze reporters this way without success, what has made Mr. McCain’s fraternization so effective is that it comes with candor — or at least the illusion of it. Over the years, reporter after reporter has remarked upon his seemingly unguarded frankness. In 1999, William Greider wrote in Rolling Stone that, “While McCain continues examining his flaws, the reporters on the bus are getting a bit edgy. Will somebody tell this guy to shut up before he self-destructs?”
Imagine, reporters protecting a candidate from himself! But, then again, since the reporters on the bus liked Mr. McCain too much to report on his gaffes, he really didn’t need protection. His candor was without consequence. It was another blandishment to the press.
Yet however much his accessibility, amiability and candor may have defined the news media’s love affair with him in 2000, and however much they continue to operate that way in 2008, there is also something different and more complicated at work now. Joan Didion once described a presidential campaign as a closed system staged by the candidates for the news media — one in which the media judged a candidate essentially by how well he or she manipulated them, and one in which the electorate were bystanders.
The political media, collectively, by and large feels as if it is their job to decide which candidates are worthy of occupying the White House. We found that out the hard way with Bill Clinton: "He came in here and he trashed the place," says Washington Post columnist David Broder, "and it's not his place."
This is what we are witness to. As Kevin Drum pointed out on Monday, St. McCain is permitted to make error after error, and yet, it is his relationship with the media, that causes them to turn a blind eye to his mistakes.
One wonders just how bad it is going to get in the general election, once the Democratic nominee starts to turn attention onto McCain?
Via Memeorandum.
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