C&L creator, John Amato, appeared on MSNBC Friday to talk about GOP presidential candidate, John McCain’s new ad, and the free pass he’s received from the mainstream media during the primary season. We’ve covered the media’s love affair with the aging Arizona Senator, and as John points out, all he has to run on is his war record and the media has been all too happy to help him out:
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“Well, of course the only thing that John McCain can run on is that he’s the military man and the media helps him out. I mean, he has this gaffe, he doesn’t know who’s in Iran, are they Iraqi, a Shiite, or an extremist and the media lets him off the hook so he doesn’t need these commercials because the media’s helping him out already.”
Amato also brings up the escalating violence in Basra and Baghdad, which shows how the crumbling surge could hurt John McCain, but he was cut off by MSNBC host Mark Mullen– who seemed more interested in talking about Al Gore jumping in the Democratic primary race — which proves John’s point, as Mullen gives McCain a free pass on the one issue he’s staking his entire candidacy on.
Filed Under: Campaigns/Elections, Election 08, Iraq, John Amato interviews, John McCain, MSNBC, Middle East
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John McCain’s military expertise will prove invaluable if we ever go to war with Cambodia or Vietnam again. As for his knowledge of the Middle East, not so much.
go john go!
spank the MsM!
Good job John
The corporate media is a complete propaganda organ of the Right. Their “news media” are simply marketing venues. Their newscasters and pundits are merely marketing personnel.
Expecting integrity, accuracy, fairness or professionalism from the MSM is like expecting Coca-Cola’s marketing division to fairly and accurately report on news from Pepsi. That’s not their job.
Rusty Hussein-Legged Mack Daddy Shackleford @ 1:
Vietnamese, Iraqi, what’s the difference to crazy Johnny?
Left&Left @ 4:
“Charlie is in Iran!”
I’m really tired of this “anyone could’ve made that mistake” garbage. A person running for President of the United States shouldn’t be just “anyone.” He should know what the fuck he’s talking about.
Rusty Hussein-Legged Mack Daddy Shackleford @ 1:
McCain’s military experience includes almost sending the USS Forestall to the bottom of the China sea after his plane “misfired” a rocket while still on deck, getting shot down after less than a couple dozen flights, and signing all those anti-American statements while at the “Hanoi Hilton.”
If he has a shred of credibility, he would have publicly chastised or even left the GOP after the disgraceful incident of all those GOP delegates wearing those “purple hear band aids.” But since he is a fucking whore, let him run on his military record… please, I am not willing to give him any respect that he has long lost. Respect is earned, nor granted… and you can milk the whole “POW” bullshit for so long. Most of his POW colleagues did suffer the same torture, did not sign the anti-American crap, and did not use their POW experience as a jumping point for political and personal gains. To me McCain milking his POW status is an affront to those who did suffer with him, since he is the only thing he has to run on… he is cheapening the sacrifice and service of a lot of people.
I was not taken aback by the attacks on Kerry, as much as I was mortified for what they did to McCleland: a vet who lost both legs and an arm by diving on a live grenade to protect his comrades. And the GOP shitted on him… and now they want to sell us the whole “War Hero” bullshit now? There is a special ring of hell for this scum buckets… Fuck the lot of them…
Nice John. But “Democrats don’t play that game [meaning swift boating].” The Clintons?
Senator SlimeBall’s record as America’s first and only ‘Reverse Ace’, he lost five planes during his career to make him #1 in that dubious category, is great, riveting stuff but what about The ‘Magic Man’ and his running….
Without coattails…..
Hmmmmmmmmmmmmm?
John I just happened to catch it live on tv. I was laying on my bed almost asleep and I hear the words, John Amato. I became wide awake fast. You made the C&L family proud.
I did notice how John was cut off when he mentioned what’s going on in Iraq. Nope no time for talking about reality.
I just saw a new ad for McCain. It shows him laying on the cot in Vietnam and talking to his his guard or someone. Does anyone besides me think he can overplay the fact that he was a POW. To me, that really is his primary military experience. He hasn’t much else.
pissed off patricia @ 10:
Perhaps some future candidate for president of Iraq can use a picture of himself at Abu Ghraib for similar purposes.
rekroc @ 6:
After 5 yrs of war in the zone, 1 million civilians killed, millions of refugees, 4k American troops killed, and almost $1 Trillion in expenses… you would think a jackass who has only one thing to run on: war on “terror.” You would think that at least he would have the mental capability to get the basics of the area right, like for example the fucking difference between Shias and Sunnis. It takes what? A 10 minute briefing, a couple of paragraphs tops in background? And this jackass can’t even get that right…
Dollar Brand @ 8:
I never consider DLCers to be democrats, more like GOPlites… so in a sense John may be correct.
Hi guys..It was fun. I tried to get my point across…I didn’t see the banner below me that said The REBRANDING OF McCain or I would have talked about that…
Excellent point about John Kerry. It doesn’t matter to Republicans that he’d served his country honorably in Vietnam - and why? Because he was a Democrat. You certainly won’t see the Swiftboat Veterans for “Truth” calling out McCain on his service.
We need to push to wrap up the nomination. The Democrats cannot afford to wait, and we certainly cannot afford to have Al Gore run as a ‘compromise candidate’. The time for compromise has been over for eight years.
It is waste of time going on these shows. The dice is always rigged against the Liberal. They cut him off as soon as he started talking about how bad Iraq was. Their mission is to convince America that the DEMS are divided and McCain is a war hero. Funny how they are going to play up McCain’s war record when they attacked Kerrys. But that is the double standard of the right. The Republican woman had a really stupid voice. That alone was worth attacking.
A mainstream news organization bends over backwards to protect a profitable-for-them right-wing candidate. And in other news, the sky is blue and a bear was rumored to have shit out a Nazi pope in the woods, or something equally mundane.
aaaaawyeah, amato!!
too sexy! TOO sexy!
:)
McCain is now a criminal. He has broken the campaign finance law! No one in the media is talking about this fact. McCain is a criminal.
Oh my John, I didn’t even notice the banner because I was looking at you and listening.
Pat Leahy said on radio that Hillary should bring her campaign to an end. He also mentioned how many gaffs McCain is being allowed to get away with while everyone pays attention to the Hillary and Obama campaigns.
Everyone please give to smiletrain . If you dont know what that is, shame on you.
DC @ 19:
Or about the fact that he was not born in the US, but hey he is a Republican so the media ignores it.
well, we here in the blogosphere shouild keep screaming.
Let us ask: what does it matter that McCain was a ‘military man’? Does being a grunt automatically grant one omniscience in defense affairs? I know three individuals in my personal life who either are or have been members of a branch of the United States Armed Services, and not one of them feigns to know the slightest about foreign affairs. I don’t think any of them even know altogether too much about the technological aspect of military service; none of them could tell you about the material sciences which go into constructing shell-proof armor for tanks, for example.
It’s time for blogs to begin conducting their own campaign against McCain, by calling into question things that the right-wing media won’t touch. The grassroots today is more powerful than at any other time, and most of us are more knowledgeable than any mindless talking head. Let us step in for the Democrats while they’re too busy bickering amongst our own and take charge of the debate until such a time as someone (hopefully Obama) wraps up the nomination. If it would be possible to form a coalition between liberal and leftist blogs, we could handily destroy the Republicans before any Democrat even steps up to the debate podium.
John Amato @ 14:
good job, JA. you’re lucky they didn’t put ‘liberal pundit’ under you as a caption. they’re msm. unfortunately you keep your expectations high. that’s good character, I’ll admit and I’m glad you have those feelings. you’re better than they are.
John,
Stick with the blog.
You do not come across well on video.
You look like you’re drunk.
At least borrow a jacket from someone that matches your shirt!
“John McCain has been getting dissed…”
I can’t believe a reporter just said that.
I went to Townhall.com just to see what they like to discuss.
here’s a list of subjects that are blogged about most over in the Land of “Conservatoria”:
Blogs by Issue
Campaigns & Elections (1775)
Media & Culture (1710)
Foreign Affairs (1566)
Faith & Family (1559)
A Culture of Life (1555)
Immigration (1437)
Budget & Government (1383)
Education (1332)
Judges & Courts (1239)
Safety & Security (1219)
Jobs & Economy (1172)
Energy & Environment (1084)
Second Amendment (1031)
Science & Technology (1000)
Tax Relief (989)
Health Care (938)
Social Security (797)
Property Rights (385)
what is missing from this list of thigs that really should concern Americans?
anyone?
anyone?
Like I have said before, his “war hero” status along with his being a POW seems to put him behind some sort of political firewall. He seems untouchable in those two categories. So we move from there….what other experiences does he have that would make him better to handle this invasion in Iraq? He admits he knows little to nothing about economics.
So the main thing on most people’s mind today is the economy
The second and third things are health care and the war.
Where is McCain’s niche?
It is past time Clinton and Obama turned their sights on McCain. He is getting a free pass from the media, which we all knew would happen, so the Dems have to attack twice as hard. And keep calling the media on their bias.
We need to think strategically.
As it stands now, blogs act as something of a lobbyist bloc, but we’re not unified. There are a large number of blogs with large numbers of viewers, such as C&L, DailyKos, etc., but we don’t really work together. Right now, so far as I see it, we’re stuck in a sort of mode where every blog basically does its own thing, and while a few blogs might by happenstance bring to light something at the same time, there’s rarely a concerted effort across the grassroots to force a particular issue up and front.
That needs to change. If it were possibly for the grassroots to gel together - that is to say, form something approaching a united consensus, complete with a nominal de facto leadership - we might really be able to change things. A dozen blogs discussing one particular issue is much more effective than a hundred discussing things haphazardly, after all.
rekroc @ 6:
yes, he absolutely should. however, there’s more at work than just an unintentional gaffe of course. a sadly sizable percentage of the american population doesn’t know the difference between sunni and shia or that iran is shia or any of that. so a large part of what was actually at play with mccain was an INTENTIONAL conflating of the two parties into one scary AY-rab enemy. unfortunately, that point is getting far too little coverage.
I just sent off a critical email to MSNBC regarding Mark Mullens. Here is the text:
Wow!
MSNBC brings John Amato on to talk about the pass McCain receives from the press
and is interrupted by Mark Mullen when he talks about how the crumbling “surge”
in Iraq should be hurting McCain!
Mark Mullen would rather talk about Al Gore jumping in the race? Why pretend to
talk about the media soft shoe for McCain if you aren’t going to let critics
of the soft shoe talk? So you can say you covered soft media coverage of McCain?
You can do better than that.
Then I signed it. If more of us did that maybe things would change (hint hint)
Canuknotusa @ 26:
Show me you fashion police badge. I want your name and badge number. :)
John Amato @ 14:
Well you had 30 seconds so I think you did a good job. If someone told me, “Tell me what you think about John McCain, 30 seconds,” I would still be gathering my thoughts by the time they turned to the next person. I don’t understand the rationale behind such short segments.
“Garlic nose” ranted Wright.
Anyhoo, MSNBC will back the corporate candidate Mclobbyists and is supporting Obama so they can turn on him to help their corporate candidate.
At least one blogger called them on their bias for mcbushie.
Nice work piasan.
Smitty @ 33:
Very well done.
We need to have a directory established that details the contact information of every single individual of interest at work in the media industry. As it stands now, I have to use Google-fu to get any information of this sort, and I don’t like that. We need to compile this information for easy access. Does anybody want to take a crack at it?
McCain - war hero - free pass.
Obama - historic - free pass.
Now what?
pissed off patricia @ 34:
Yeah, we’ll send Fox Security right over!
Canuknotusa @ 26:
WHAT?! what are you, the canadian simon cowell?! jealousy doesn’t become you, cannuck.
All Trades @ 38:
Except that’s not at all accurate. Where were you when the Reverend Wright ‘controversy’ broke - and, more importantly, when the Reverend Hagee controversy didn’t
Have a list of five points to hit, and get at least something in on each one.
McCain gets a free pass by Main Stream Media. Check.
McCain spending is breaking the law. Missed it.
Keating Five, 16 grand in bribes. Missed it.
Lobbyist influence, not just the one he’s accused of having an affair with. Missed it.
McCain pushed for Bush’s surge. Missed it.
Also, for each talking point there’s going to be a standard denial or an attempt to dismiss it. Be ready for dismissals with “Easy to ignore tough questions when your job depends on it.”
Visual presentation: You looked like Jimmy Kimmel smiling after he just farted. Sit up straight, put on your concerned citizen face. I’d carry a clipboard, too, with your five points. You can consult it as you tick them off, using it as both a tool and a prop.
John Amato @ 14:
Not so sure that one could call it rebranding so much as repackaging. You know, like they do at Winn Dixie with meat that’s passed its’ best before date. Sprinkle a little dry rub on it and presto it’s good as new.
Dollar Brand @ 8:
I’m not saying that they play clean all of the time– but what have they done that is the equivalent of swiftboating?
All Trades @ 38:
Now what?
It’s McCain v/s Obama.
The battle of the century.
Two perfect people.
How to spin it?
David and Goliath? New v/s old?
Historic v/s old?
Reliable v/s fresh face?
Experience v/s unknown potential?
Let me know when it’s all over.
I’m going to watch reruns of “Who wants to be a millionaire.”