Spoiler Alert: Presidential Election Winner Declared

Barack Obama has won the election and will become the 44th president of the United States in January.

So sayeth the editors of The New Mexico Sun News. More than a week before the presidential election, the liberal paper published an article declaring Obama the winner.

The papers are popular because of the headline. It reads “Obama Wins!”

The admittedly left-leaning publication is calling the election a week early because it supports Obama and because the bi-monthly paper will not be published again until well after the election.

The article does, however, remind all people to vote even though, in their words, “(They) did spoil the ending for you.”

Congratulations to The Sun News for hatching a short-sighted plot to improve their circulation for a single issue. They can’t keep the papers on the stands and It’s just as well. New Mexicans will need something to line their hamster cages next week.

October 28, 2008 · Filed Under Election 2008, Media Bias

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Orson Scott Card on our Dishonest, Dishonorable Media

Like all reasonable Americans, Democrat Orson Scott Card is not pleased with the state of journalism our country. His tone reveals a sense of betrayal everyone should be feeling right now. Here are some excerpts from his open letter to “almost every local daily paper in America” (found via what if?):

Your job, as journalists, is to tell the truth. That’s what you claim you do, when you accept people’s money to buy or subscribe to your paper.

But right now, you are consenting to or actively promoting a big fat lie — that the housing crisis should somehow be blamed on Bush, McCain, and the Republicans. You have trained the American people to blame everything bad — even bad weather — on Bush, and they are responding as you have taught them to.

If you had any personal honor, each reporter and editor would be insisting on telling the truth — even if it hurts the election chances of your favorite candidate.

Because that’s what honorable people do. Honest people tell the truth even when they don’t like the probable consequences. That’s what honesty means. That’s how trust is earned.

Card’s only mistake is believing that the people to whom he directs his letter care about honor and honesty, that they value ethics and truth. But this election season has made clear that there won’t be any light bulb moments in newsrooms across America. These people have already decided: epiphany, thy name is Obama.

He continues:

Barack Obama is just another politician, and not a very wise one. He has revealed his ignorance and naivete time after time — and you have swept it under the rug, treated it as nothing.

Meanwhile, you have participated in the borking of Sarah Palin, reporting savage attacks on her for the pregnancy of her unmarried daughter — while you ignored the story of John Edwards’s own adultery for many months.

So I ask you now: Do you have any standards at all? Do you even know what honesty means?

Is getting people to vote for Barack Obama so important that you will throw away everything that journalism is supposed to stand for?

I appreciate Card’s optimism in reaching out to these “journalists,” and applaud his attempt to call them out on their despicable betrayal of Americans’ trust. But these rhetorical questions won’t shame members of the media into doing right by their readers. It is the American people – Joe the plumber and Tito the construction worker and Jenn the blogger – and not the media elite who will ultimately shape the outcome of the election.

We have reached a Dickensian moment in American history, the age of foolishness in journalism and the age of wisdom among patriotic citizens. So let the mainstream American media plummet into the worst of times; it is at the polls, and not in the newspapers, that we will ensure the best of times.

October 21, 2008 · Filed Under Election 2008, Media Bias

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VP Debate Mod Will Profit From an Obama Win

The liberal bias in the media has gotten so bad that debate moderators no longer even aim for the appearance of impartiality.

Gwen Ifill is the PBS anchor moderating the Vice Presidential debate this Thursday. Like all of this year’s debate moderators, Ifill is left-leaning, but that alone doesn’t preclude her from performing impartially. No, what calls her objectivity into question is the fact that she is about to publish a book called The Breakthrough: Politics and Race in the Age of Obama. That’s not a joke.

Michelle Malkin has plenty of details on this travesty. She also has a suggestion for how the debate should begin:

In an imaginary world where liberal journalists are held to the same standards as everyone else, Ifill would be required to make a full disclosure at the start of the debate. She would be required to turn to the cameras and tell the national audience that she has a book coming out on January 20, 2009 – a date that just happens to coincide with the inauguration of the next president of the United States.

That’s right, a win for Obama means a win for Ifill’s wallet.

Her absurd lack of neutrality is outrageous enough to get me spewing nastiness like a feminist rampaging against Sarah Palin. Such a flagrant assault on even the most lax conflict-of-interest standards was almost unfathomable to me before I read Michelle’s piece.

I know, I’m naive.

At least I can take consolation in my belief that Palin has it in her to take whatever Ifill dishes out and use it to her advantage. The debate will be great as long as we get Palin v 1.0, not the newfangled 2.0 the McCain campaign has been trying to sell.

October 1, 2008 · Filed Under Election 2008, Media Bias

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Letters to Charlie Gibson

A 500 character letter to Charlie Gibson, inspired by Jim Treacher’s much wittier effort:

Mr. Gibson,

Thank you for attempting to expand my definition of journalism during your interview with Sarah Palin. I was not aware that deliberate distortion and misrepresentation were acceptable practice in your field.

I’m sure you and your editing team appreciated the opportunity to do your jobs unencumbered by professional ethics. Principles can be so limiting to a journalist’s creativity.

By the way, your credibility called: it won’t be coming home. Ever.

Good luck in your new career.

Submit your own “Dear Charlie” letter at ABC.

If Sean Hannity is right that 2008 will be remembered as “the year journalism died,” Charlie Gibson may go down in history as the one who dug it up and violated its rotting corpse one last time.

September 13, 2008 · Filed Under Media Bias, Sarah Palin

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