On Meet the Press this morning, NBC’s Chuck Todd got honest and told us what we already know, but what the media rarely likes to confess. McCain has a lot in the bank with the media and they will help him out of his problems. You’re all aware of McCain’s linking al-Qaeda to Iran all last week—which is not happening because of the Sunni/Shia difference. He had to get bailed out by his Lieberman posse and his FOX friend Britt Hume, but the real story given to us by Chuck Todd is that the media would have attacked either of the two Democratic nominees for days on end over the same gaffe.
Download | Play 
Download | Play (h/t Heather)
Todd: He’s got enough of that in the bank, at least with the media, that he can get away with it. I mean, the irony to this is had either Senator Clinton or Senator Obama misspoke like that, it’d have been on a running loop, and it would become a, a big problem for a couple of days for them.
He’s got enough in the bank so he can get away with it, but the Dems need to have fear of the media’s running loop. Here you have it folks. When McCain makes a HUGE blunder on the one issue he tells America he’s qualified to run on: foreign policy, the media shrugs it off, but if a Democratic candidate had made the same mistake it would have been headlines for days. You could assume that Lieberman would then have been booked on teevee 24/7 —yelling into the cameras that they are incompetents on the very serious issue of foreign policy instead of whispering sweet answers in McCain’s ear to correct him. Get used to this treatment from the media. It’s sickening…
MR. RUSSERT: And then, then Lindsey Graham, who he was with, and then Joe Lieberman both tried to say to him, al-Qaeda is Sunni, not trained by the Shiite Iranian government. Does that kind of stumble hurt a McCain candidacy?
MR. TODD: Well, what’s odd about the, the stumble is that it–is it a stumble or was it, or was it that this talking point that he’d been, that he’d been using for actually a couple weeks or over a week, where he was talking about sort of almost blurring that the, the enemy of al-Qaeda and the enemy of the, the Shia-trained Iranians and sort of blurring them as one enemy. And the, the question is, did he just sort of–he truncated it to the point where he ended up misspeaking. The, the problem, of course, McCain has is that he can’t, you know, he doesn’t want to make it so that he, he forgot it for a minute. You know, he’s–because of the age issue, he can’t ever look like he’s having a senior moment. So instead, he’s better off going ahead and saying, you know, OK, so he misspoke. Even if he gets dinged on the experience stuff, “Oh, he says he’s Mr. Experience. Doesn’t he know the difference between this stuff?” He’s got enough of that in the bank, at least with the media, that he can get away with it. I mean, the irony to this is had either Senator Clinton or Senator Obama misspoke like that, it’d have been on a running loop, and it would become a, a big problem for a couple of days for them.
Filed Under: John McCain, Media Criticism, Meet the Press/Tim Russert
Tags: John McCain, Meet the Press. Media criticism
No Trackbacks To “Chuck Todd admits media gave McCain a pass over Iran/al-Qaeda gaffe and would have attacked the Dems“
Hell, this latest free-pass from the MSM for McCain is nothing compared to enabling him to resurrect his primary campaign from the dead. How appropriate for Easter!
Anyone have anything on Russert’s reaction, body language, etc., to this gaffe? (Gaffe in the sense of unintentional truth-telling.)
i wonder if the media would feel comfortable if mccain had a senior moment if there was another cuban missle type of crisis?
Over the past two days, the fawning American media has provided rave reviews of John McCain’s visit to France. While the New York Times lauded “McCain’s soothing tones,” Time gushed about “McCain’s Paris romance” and the transformation of Franco-American relations made possible by his warm embrace of French President Nicolas Sarkozy. But lost in these accounts is John McCain’s vitriolic France-bashing in the run-up to the war in Iraq. Back in 2003, John McCain stood shoulder to shoulder with the Paris-hating purveyors of “freedom fries” and “old Europe.”
For the details, see:
“Fawning Media Ignore McCain’s Past France-Bashing.”
This is how the MSM runs us now? Openly admitting the Repub bias that gives our beloved country, & is so willing to give in the future, the worthless, horseshit federal governance we have right now?
Aux barricades, mes amis…
So now can we expect the media going to give Hillary a free pass to this?! Outrageous!
http://digg.com/2008_us_electi.....ie_w_video
.
BBQ anyone?
.
I’m so sick of this darned librul media.
Arrow @ 6:
I registered with digg just to vote for that. Its obscene what Hillary is getting away with here on that story. As awful as McCain’s gaffe was, compared to Hillary’s lie here, its nothing. Such a whopper would have ended Obama’s campaign, but I guess people are fine with Hillary “padding her resume” with outright lies?
Does Obama have to play in the muck and yell about this to get any coverage on it at all?
oopsie….senior moment…. did i say “bomb bomb bomb bomb bomb IRAN???” i meant… IRAQ…
hey… is it too late to call the bombers back…. i mean… do they have a short wave radio or something….
can we get a DO_OVER out here…. somebody call them MUSLIMs and tell them to duck…
Of course, the corporate media want a third term for Mcbushie and here is a glimpse of the future from Bartcop.
“I would eat this up like cake.”
— GOP hatchetman Rick Wilson, who did the 2002 Cleland-Osama morph ads,
talking about what the GOP will do with Obama-Wright connection.
“It’s harder for people to say it’s taken out of context because these are Wright’s own words.
You let people draw their own conclusions. You don’t have to say that he’s unpatriotic; you don’t
question his patriotism. Because I guaran-damn-tee you that, with that footage, you don’t have to.”
— Chris LaCivita, GOP hatchetman who helped craft the Swift Boat commercials against Kerry
Yes, they’re going to make Obama “the most radical Muslim” to ever step foot in America,
but there’s no need to worry because the voters are smart - right?”
Um, Americans elected w twice and they will never elect Obama’s 20 year relationship with his God damn America spiritual kook.
I’m trying to figure out why McCain is on a World Victory Tour like he is already Prez. Who does that in the middle of a campaign? Very weird.
But then Todd gave McCain a pass on his fabrication, and the media a pass on ingoring the fabrication, and threw in a new excuse for McCain to use:
TODD: “Well what’s odd about that stumble. Is it a stumble or was it this talking point that he’d been using for actually a couple weeks or over a week where he was talking about almost blurring the enemy of Al Qaeda and the enemy of the Shia trained Iranians and sort of blurring them as one enemy. The question is – he truncated it to the point where he ended up misspeaking.
McCain wasn’t “blurring” anything–he categorically stated THREE times that Iran was training AQI people in Ran and then sending them back to Iraq! UTTER FABRICATION!
And then Dodd invents an excuse–McCain’s gotten so used to saying something that he accidentally left out some words!
DODD is part of the problem.
Chuck Todd is at least honest - he admits that the media is in the bag for McCain.
It is an Imperial war, it is Imperial media. It is government of, by, and for the corporations.
The challenge is to inform the vast majority of people wherein lies their interests.
To the extent that they succeed, the Democrats take the election.
The interests of the vast majority are not with the Republicans and not with any Democrat willing to endorse one on TV.
Obama is the real deal, and never mind what he looks like.
Can you imagine how Dems would have been attacked making the same “gaffe” over & over & over again? They’d be crucified.
Instead, McCain’s gaffes are laughed out, downplayed and written of jokingly as a “senior moment” by his media lackeys. What’s scary is it probably is a “senior moment” and that’s not something they should be laughing at.
It should terrify them.
Thanks for looking at it honestly, Chuck.
I am not sure i have a problem with Obama’s appearance. Has he grown horns?
xoites Hussein defends Constitution @ 17:
I’ll be happy to have a president who doesn’t sound like he’s drooling when he speaks.
thejoshuablog @ 16:
again, you think so huh? apparently not if its Hillary, who repeated multiple times last week the story about her being under sniper fire in Bosnia
http://digg.com/2008_us_electi.....ie_w_video
the story and video proving she lied is about to become the very top digged story after only hitting the popular list hours ago.
At this rate we are going to have one MEDIA owned by one guy under one company.
BIG BROTHER
L.A. Confidential @ 20:
Fed a daily diet of crap, spin, lies, and meaningless nonsense delivered by Lacquer headed SUITS and Blonde Bimbos.
The media gave Barak apass for months so I’m not getting bent about this..
According to the polls blah blah blah blah.
You know, this is why I don’t listen to the mainstream media. If I do turn on a television news channel I usually leave the volume down or totally off. I simply do not care what those pundits have to say about any issue. I learned that valuable lesson real quick when I used to listen to economic pundits. I learned years ago that if I want to know something about a particular issue I am going to have to find out about it on my own because the media will tell me exactly what they want me to know and skew it towards their particular view or agenda. In a way, the media is no different than a stock pump and dump except they do it with politicians.
Ive said for years that the mainstream media is anti Democratic Party.
Don’t take my word for it, just observe for yourselves and compare republican coverage with right wing representation and pundits with Democratic coverage with left wing representation.
L.A. Confidential @ 21:
That about sums it up.
xoites Hussein defends Constitution @ 17:
Be sure that you have no problem.
If you watch much of the Corporate Media (my television has been unplugged in the corner for years) you may think he has grown horns. They mean for you to think it.
chris @ 22:
And the pass was???
To be fair to Chuck…or Todd…or…whatever. He never has been secretive about being one sided. it’s almost as if he didn’t like it…but they paid him enough money to sell out his morals…but he still has a conscience…that gets bought off with each paycheck.
everybody knows money trumps honor! (in most cases)
xoites Hussein defends Constitution @ 17:
No typical god fearing wing nut fear mongering fox news types “reaction-logic” figures since Obama didn’t draw a pistol and shoot his pastor dead, he must agree with what the pastor said.
motorfingaz @ 28:
Never questioned his background or policies the way they are now, well they are still not questioning his policies…..
And Yet… @ 5:
*Dick Cheney* “SO?”
“get used to it”? - done. What mystifies me is that having said that, that Mccain gets a pass and the Dems would get hammered - tomorrow that big fat living pharmacy Rush Limbaugh will go on the air again and start talking about the “liberal, ‘drive by’” media. I’m not mystified by the fact that the Pillsbury Doughboy will still talk about it, i’m mystified because people will still take that living-tumor seriously.
I can see it all now in the McInsane Whitehouse.
The Alarm goes off on McIsanes bedside clock at three AM for his morning pee.
He here’s the ringing and thinks RED PHONE
then he pushes the button and the “nuculurs” start flying.
But we shouldn’t get excited, “it’s just a senior moment.”
Joe O. @ 26:
By the way, you forgot to mention the media’s continuous use of bright and blinking lights along with a wide array of graphics, charts and the like to feed their crap to the masses. Just think “shiney things, stupid people like shiney things so we have to put up a lot of lights!” because that is the way the media thinks about us.
The time is ripe for alternative media, such as blogs, social networking, etc., etc. to be a bold challenge to the techno fascist agenda of the corporate media giants. The discrediting phase has passed now things will get nasty as bastards start to notice the dings in their market share. Huzzah! Crooks and Liars, Huzzah! Firedoglake Huzzah Daily Kos! Huzzah to the countless others out there who are fighting this Orwellian nightmare how real Americans should!
L.A. Confidential,
I’ve read a bit about semiotics. The Nazis were masters of it. Art used for evil.
I would like to see all the networks, when they are discussing an issue of any of the candidates, show in split screen each of the candidates records on the views being expressed. It would be a simple, yet fair way of doing it, provided the network is vetting their statements.
chris @ 31:
Yea, just like no one cares to talk about McCain’s economic policies either. Thats good, because he really doesn’t have any economic policies (other than simple rhetoric) and has no idea about economics in general. We also won’t hear to much about his positions on social issues and for good reason. His social policies really piss off the Christian right.
That damn liberal media bias is giving the senile old man a free pass.
Joe O. @ 35:
Yup. And don’t forget media’s continuous bombardment of boobs, babes, sex, and the encouragement of the most out of control, inconsiderate and mindless behavior no one in their right mind would engage in.
♣Bangkok Bob♠ @ 34:
sorry, that should read “hears” not here’s
it’s the booze talking
This should be used as an attack twofer by Obama. He should point out that McCain is either clueless or deliberately misleading, and then cite Todd’s admission and accuse the media of a double standard. The “endless loop” quote is perfect, because it calls them on the whole Wright drumbeat. What’s wrong with attacking the giant Wurlitzer?
It is clear the mainstream media is only too happy to give BOTH Barack Obama and John McCain any and every pass they can summo