“The simple fact is that the mainstream media in general, and the cast of establishment liberals who cycle through Morning Joe in particular, believe they are just doing good journalism when they hound all Republicans for one Republican’s gaffe. But when a Democrat fouls up it’s an isolated incident sparking false outrage,” Jonah Goldberg notes. At Hot Air, Jazz Shaw adds:
I don’t believe Chuck Todd intended to make this admission, but he really did highlight a truth in the media’s coverage of politics which most of cable news needs to answer for. During the raging gun control / background checks debate, where was the parade of reporters asking each Democrat candidate whether they believed that firing a shotgun into the air out your back door was a good emergency safety plan? The press did actually cover the story when Tom Harkin stuck his foot in his mouth and later apologized. But when the alphabet networks dispatched their minions out on the campaign trail, where was the reporter asking Greg Orman if he thought Joni Ernst was as good looking as Taylor Swift or if he was going to condemn Harkin? And I haven’t seen a single reporter from CNN ask Hillary to weigh in on it.
This phenomenon is unique to Republicans when it comes to the media. If one of them utters the word “rape” or speculates on the age of the Earth, reporters rack up hundreds of dollars in speeding tickets as they rush to ask each and every Republican on the ballot anywhere in the nation to either agree with the offending comment or condemn the Republican who said it. This never happens to Democrats. Ever.
Politicians on both sides of the aisle are going to say incandescently stupid things, because that’s what politicians do. As P.J. O’Rourke once famously described the Senate, “The founding fathers, in their wisdom, devised a method by which our republic can take one hundred of its most prominent numbskulls and keep them out of the private sector where they might do actual harm.”
Whether holding political office or running for it, between giving speeches and giving interviews, a politician’s lips are moving 100 percent of their waking hours, and the words that emerge don’t always synch up with the thoughts in his brain, or the words on the teleprompter. Since gaffes by politicians can’t be avoided, and such a transparent double-standard exists by Democrat operatives with bylines to exploit them when they occur on the opposite side of the aisle, how does the GOP push back against the MSM’s attempt to nationalize them?
Related: Oh, and speaking about Democrat gaffes, “Biden Blows Greg Orman’s Cover: He ‘Will Be With Us.'”
I doubt Joe intended to clarify things so dramatically for Kansas voters, but as they say MSNBC’s parent network, the more you know…
Update: I somehow doubt the sign in this photo refers to Chuck Todd, but still it’s a phone number that everyone associated with NBC should keep handy.
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