Hardball Round Table Struggle w/Hillary's Assassination Talk

Journalism in a World Where Spin is the Baseline: Journalists lose both their skills (as journalists, by not getting the facts before reporting and opining) and as human beings (by losing touch with their own and the culture's moral compass). They're not called "the worthless media" for nothing.

On Hardball with Chris Matthews, regulars Michelle Bernard, Chris Cilizza and E.J. Dionne make excuses for Hillary Clinton's outrageous comments about staying in the race in case Obama is assassinated as Bobby Kennedy was.

In this clip, E.J. Dionne bends over backwards to "give Senator Clinton the benefit of the doubt", despite the fact that throughout Clinton's campaign for the Presidency, she has assaulted our sensibilities. Dionne also offers "assurances" about Senator Clinton's intentions that he can have no earthly means of knowing.

Michelle Bernard comes closest to reaching the bar, low as it is, for what passes as political analysis and debate. [Note to Ms. Bernard: The damage Senator Clinton is doing isn't only with the African-American community, but with people of all races, ages, gender, classes.]

And Chris Cilizza (another graduate of the Don King J School, covering elections as if they are prize fights) asserts that "superdelegates can end this thing tomorrow". They can't. Superdelegates can announce who they intend to vote for when the Democratic Party's convention convenes in August, but until they actually cast their ballots, the Clintons have stated that all delegates, pledged and super, are fair game for poaching.

That's the real story, the real news, that none of the cable news programs are willing to report and talk about, and it's what makes these journalists' efforts to "give Hillary Clinton the benefit of the doubt" moot.
The Clintons are broadcasting (and have been for weeks) that there are no bounds to Hillary Clinton's quest for the nomination. The Clintons have avoided talking to the media about their overall strategy, preferring to talk only about what's happening right now, and the media have obliged them. By failing to recognize and report the larger gameplan, the stakes and the possibilities, the media acts as collaborators, lulling an uncomfortable public with assurances that what they think is happening isn't. The media has been giving the public, and themselves, the idea that the end is just around the corner. With the next primary. Or the one after that. "She'll surely be dropping out".

But she isn't.

5/23/08

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News & Politics

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• hardball
• chris
• matthews
• hillary
• clinton
• cilizza
• michelle
• bernhard
• e.j.
• dionne
• rfk
• assassination
• obama
• 5/23/08