Allegations of Publishing and Broadcast Media Bias In the 2008 Presidential Election
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The author of this article examines the allegations of publishing and media bias in the 2008 Presidential Election to determine if they were either fair or of any assistance to the Republican candidate. For the most part, the author concludes, such allegations have not been accurate, have been recognized as unfruitful and have fallen on deaf ears. Finally, as newspaper make their endorsements of the candidates they support, such allegations fall by the wayside completely.
In the months leading up to the 2008 Presidential Election there have been numerous claims, mostly by the Republican campaign, that the publishing media is biased.
For the most part in this Presidential campaign, one candidate initially leveled these attacks on the press with regularity, the Republican candidate, John McCain. While newspapers expect this to some extent, the public that is not wedded to one side of the fence or the other seemed to tire of the attacks. And for publishing attorneys in California and CA election lawyers and the rest of the country, this has been the year that such attacks have all but seemed toothless and inconsequential.
In the 2008 Presidential Election, John McCain denounced the New York times in the strongest words, following a Times report that McCain’s campaign manager had been pain nearly $2 million by mortgage entities Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. McCain’s chief strategist said the New York Times is no longer a journalistic organization but is 150 percent in the tank for Barack Obama. Schmidt earlier attacked MSNBC as being an organ of the Democratic National Committee, and said the news media are on a mission to destroy Sarah Palin.
Unfortunately for John McCain, it was subsequently reported in the press that McCain’s campaign manager’s lobbying firm, which is apparently owned by his campaign manager, received $15,000/month for nearly three years and that and that the campaign manager was paid $30,000/month for nearly five years by an advocacy organization that he headed and which was financed by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to fight regulation. It has further been reported that McCain’s senior advisor, his campaign’s vice chairman, and his Congressional liaison, also made large sums of money from Fannie and Freddie lobbying or were in firms that did.
In an apparent attempt to deflect attention away from his mistaken attack on the New York Times story, McCain then announced he was suspending his campaign to immediately fly to Washington after awaking that morning to find a report in the Washington Post that he was behind in the polls by nine points. Soon after attempting to criticize that finding, and knowing what the disaster Sarah Palin’s interview with Katie Couric would be aired that night, McCain chose to dump his appearance on the David Letterman show, upstage the Couric interview with his own interview on the CBS News, and announce the suspension of his campaign that was in reality, never a suspension.
In hindsight of course, McCain’s actions were a huge error in judgment. His dilly-dallying around New York after ditching Letterman were picked up on and hammered at him unmercifully for two nights on the David Letterman show and later on the Daily Show, other news shows, on the internet and in the press. By the time he arrived the next day in Washington, it had already been announced that there was bipartisan support for the bailout bill, that just as quickly dissipated upon his arrival. It was reported that his campaign had not been suspended and Letterman, among others joked at his expense why he must have felt he could not leave his campaign in the hands of Sarah Palin, when she was seen incapable of answering simple questions put to her by Katie Couric. And after announcing he would not take part in the debate until there was either a bailout bill or great progress toward one, he had to fly back from Washington for the debate with no bailout bill in hand and Congress much less united than when he had arrived.
After John McCain was later skewered by David Letterman for days, there was little he could do. He could not attack David Letterman as being biased. David Letterman is not the news, he’s a comedian. He has license to make jokes at candidate’s expense. On top of that, McCain had not only cancelled his appearance, but David Letterman had shown his audience a live feed from CBS News of McCain getting make up applied to his face for an appearance on the CBS News with Katie Couric just a short distance away. When he later made up for his missed appearance on David Letterman two weeks later, he admitted his mistake saying, “I screwed up.”
Attacking the media has long been a tactic of national candidates. In this election, once again, we have seen this tactic employed, yet with little of the success it enjoyed in previous Presidential campaigns. The spoofs of John McCain and Sarah Palin on Saturday Night Live have been relentless and hilarious, and with that popularity, there has been little either candidate could do but laugh along with the American public and hope for an invitation to appear on the show themselves.
In the past, attacking the press has proved fruitful for Presidential candidates. This time the attack has fallen on deaf ears and has either been the exception to the rule that it will help a candidate, or there is a change taking place in what a candidate risks if he is wrong or perceived as being thin skinned.
As the election winds down and major newspapers endorsing candidates, with some newspapers such as the Chicago Tribune having never previously endorsed a Democratic party candidate for President, endorsing Obama, allegations of media bias takes to the sidelines and the electorate will decide whether they press has been fair or not, or simply doing their job. And as Barack Obama receives the endorsements of as many as three times the amount of newspaper endorsements as John McCain, there will likely be fewer and fewer allegations of media bias by the Republican candidate.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR: R. Sebastian Gibson
Sebastian Gibson graduated cum laude at UCLA in 1972 and received law degrees in the U.S. and the U.K., graduating with an LL.B. magna cum laude from University College, Cardiff in Wales and a J.D. from the University of San Diego School of Law.
Mr. Gibson began his legal career in San Diego before practicing for years in London, England. Today, he has offices in Rancho Mirage and Palm Desert, Newport Beach, and the firm’s Of Counsel office is in Carlsbad, San Diego.
Mr. Gibson’s firm practices law in a wide variety of areas of law including publishing and broadcast law throughout Southern California from San Diego, Orange County, Irvine, Anaheim, Huntington Beach, Santa Ana, Ontario, Rancho Cucamonga, La Jolla, Temecula, Buena Park, Riverside, San Bernardino, Indio, Chula Vista, Escondido, Costa Mesa, Laguna Beach, Santa Monica, Santa Barbara, Ventura, Oxnard, San Luis Obispo, Indian Wells, Fullerton, Orange, Palm Springs, Palm Desert, and Newport Beach to Carlsbad.
Copyright Law Firm of Attorney R. Sebastian Gibson
More information about Law Firm of Attorney R. Sebastian Gibson
Disclaimer: While every effort has been made to ensure the accuracy of this publication, it is not intended to provide legal advice as individual situations will differ and should be discussed with an expert and/or lawyer. For specific technical or legal advice on the information provided and related topics, please contact the author.
For the most part in this Presidential campaign, one candidate initially leveled these attacks on the press with regularity, the Republican candidate, John McCain. While newspapers expect this to some extent, the public that is not wedded to one side of the fence or the other seemed to tire of the attacks. And for publishing attorneys in California and CA election lawyers and the rest of the country, this has been the year that such attacks have all but seemed toothless and inconsequential.
In the 2008 Presidential Election, John McCain denounced the New York times in the strongest words, following a Times report that McCain’s campaign manager had been pain nearly $2 million by mortgage entities Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. McCain’s chief strategist said the New York Times is no longer a journalistic organization but is 150 percent in the tank for Barack Obama. Schmidt earlier attacked MSNBC as being an organ of the Democratic National Committee, and said the news media are on a mission to destroy Sarah Palin.
Unfortunately for John McCain, it was subsequently reported in the press that McCain’s campaign manager’s lobbying firm, which is apparently owned by his campaign manager, received $15,000/month for nearly three years and that and that the campaign manager was paid $30,000/month for nearly five years by an advocacy organization that he headed and which was financed by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to fight regulation. It has further been reported that McCain’s senior advisor, his campaign’s vice chairman, and his Congressional liaison, also made large sums of money from Fannie and Freddie lobbying or were in firms that did.
In an apparent attempt to deflect attention away from his mistaken attack on the New York Times story, McCain then announced he was suspending his campaign to immediately fly to Washington after awaking that morning to find a report in the Washington Post that he was behind in the polls by nine points. Soon after attempting to criticize that finding, and knowing what the disaster Sarah Palin’s interview with Katie Couric would be aired that night, McCain chose to dump his appearance on the David Letterman show, upstage the Couric interview with his own interview on the CBS News, and announce the suspension of his campaign that was in reality, never a suspension.
In hindsight of course, McCain’s actions were a huge error in judgment. His dilly-dallying around New York after ditching Letterman were picked up on and hammered at him unmercifully for two nights on the David Letterman show and later on the Daily Show, other news shows, on the internet and in the press. By the time he arrived the next day in Washington, it had already been announced that there was bipartisan support for the bailout bill, that just as quickly dissipated upon his arrival. It was reported that his campaign had not been suspended and Letterman, among others joked at his expense why he must have felt he could not leave his campaign in the hands of Sarah Palin, when she was seen incapable of answering simple questions put to her by Katie Couric. And after announcing he would not take part in the debate until there was either a bailout bill or great progress toward one, he had to fly back from Washington for the debate with no bailout bill in hand and Congress much less united than when he had arrived.
After John McCain was later skewered by David Letterman for days, there was little he could do. He could not attack David Letterman as being biased. David Letterman is not the news, he’s a comedian. He has license to make jokes at candidate’s expense. On top of that, McCain had not only cancelled his appearance, but David Letterman had shown his audience a live feed from CBS News of McCain getting make up applied to his face for an appearance on the CBS News with Katie Couric just a short distance away. When he later made up for his missed appearance on David Letterman two weeks later, he admitted his mistake saying, “I screwed up.”
Attacking the media has long been a tactic of national candidates. In this election, once again, we have seen this tactic employed, yet with little of the success it enjoyed in previous Presidential campaigns. The spoofs of John McCain and Sarah Palin on Saturday Night Live have been relentless and hilarious, and with that popularity, there has been little either candidate could do but laugh along with the American public and hope for an invitation to appear on the show themselves.
In the past, attacking the press has proved fruitful for Presidential candidates. This time the attack has fallen on deaf ears and has either been the exception to the rule that it will help a candidate, or there is a change taking place in what a candidate risks if he is wrong or perceived as being thin skinned.
As the election winds down and major newspapers endorsing candidates, with some newspapers such as the Chicago Tribune having never previously endorsed a Democratic party candidate for President, endorsing Obama, allegations of media bias takes to the sidelines and the electorate will decide whether they press has been fair or not, or simply doing their job. And as Barack Obama receives the endorsements of as many as three times the amount of newspaper endorsements as John McCain, there will likely be fewer and fewer allegations of media bias by the Republican candidate.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR: R. Sebastian Gibson
Sebastian Gibson graduated cum laude at UCLA in 1972 and received law degrees in the U.S. and the U.K., graduating with an LL.B. magna cum laude from University College, Cardiff in Wales and a J.D. from the University of San Diego School of Law.
Mr. Gibson began his legal career in San Diego before practicing for years in London, England. Today, he has offices in Rancho Mirage and Palm Desert, Newport Beach, and the firm’s Of Counsel office is in Carlsbad, San Diego.
Mr. Gibson’s firm practices law in a wide variety of areas of law including publishing and broadcast law throughout Southern California from San Diego, Orange County, Irvine, Anaheim, Huntington Beach, Santa Ana, Ontario, Rancho Cucamonga, La Jolla, Temecula, Buena Park, Riverside, San Bernardino, Indio, Chula Vista, Escondido, Costa Mesa, Laguna Beach, Santa Monica, Santa Barbara, Ventura, Oxnard, San Luis Obispo, Indian Wells, Fullerton, Orange, Palm Springs, Palm Desert, and Newport Beach to Carlsbad.
Copyright Law Firm of Attorney R. Sebastian Gibson
More information about Law Firm of Attorney R. Sebastian Gibson
View all articles published by Law Firm of Attorney R. Sebastian Gibson
Disclaimer: While every effort has been made to ensure the accuracy of this publication, it is not intended to provide legal advice as individual situations will differ and should be discussed with an expert and/or lawyer. For specific technical or legal advice on the information provided and related topics, please contact the author.
