McCain’s Love Affair With Media is Over

-By Warner Todd Huston

For those who say that the Maverick can’t learn a new lesson, Bloomberg has a story that proves John McCain has at least learned this lesson; the media is not his friend. Pronouncing that McCain’s “longtime love affair” between himself and the media is “on the rocks,” Bloomberg reports on how McCain has been distancing himself from the media of late. Naturally, Bloomberg takes a few shots along the way, too.

It seems that, instead of placing the blame on the media where it belongs for its mistreatment of McCain and its sycophancy for Obama, Bloomberg seems to suggest that it is the fault of McCain’s new campaign manager who, Bloomberg gravely tells us, was “close to Karl Rove.”

Some of the campaign’s new approach may coincide with the bigger role taken by (Steve) Schmidt, who was close to Karl Rove, a former campaign manager and White House aide to President George W. Bush, known for keeping a tight grip on press access to his boss.

Sorry, but it wasn’t Steve Schmidt’s fault that Time Magazine has had Obama on its cover 7 times in a year while only giving McCain that benefit twice during the same time period! Nor was it Steve Schmidt that just called VP pick and Alaska Governor Sarah Palin “like Caligula,” well known as one of the most debauched and mentally ill of Rome’s ancient emperors. Nor was it Schmidt that has indulged in the lowest sort of glee at raking over the media coals the life of a teenaged girl and a Down Syndrome baby.

Naturally, Bloomberg doesn’t present any exact statement by the McCain camp or McCain himself stating directly that the “longtime love affair” is over. But we do get another spurious interview by an “expert” that Bloomberg happened to dredge up to add some useless and meaningless points to the story.

“There are a lot of people who don’t like the press anymore and think they’re out of control; attacking the messenger isn’t a terrible political strategy,” said Darrell West, a scholar at the Brookings Institution in Washington who has written several books on the mass media.

Don’t “like” the press “anymore”? So, this “expert” is claiming it is merely a “political strategy”? There is an apologist, eh? The media had no hand in McCain’s new attitude?

I’m not sure he realized it, but this so-called expert made an admission of the bias and vindictiveness of the press, though.

Yet, it may also have pitfalls. `”You still need the press to get your message out and if you have an antagonistic relationship it can blow up in your face,” West said.

Yeah, “pitfalls” like the press will unfairly turn on you! He just admitted that the press is not unbiased, but are vindictive and mean spirited. Of course, this is already well known!

In any case, the story does lay out some of McCain’s more recent examples of pique directed at his once loving press corps. McCain used to jokingly call the press his “base.” Perhaps he’s finally realized that they were lying to him the whole time!

I won’t say I told you so Senator.

OK, yes I will.

(Photo credit: The New York observer)

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Warner Todd Huston is a Chicago based freelance writer, has been writing opinion editorials and social criticism since early 2001 and is featured on many websites such as newsbusters.org, townhall.com, New Media Journal, Men’s News Daily and the New Media Alliance among many, many others. Additionally, he has been a frequent guest on talk-radio programs to discuss his opinion editorials and current events. He has also written for several history magazines and appears in the new book “Americans on Politics, Policy and Pop Culture” which can be purchased on amazon.com. He is also the owner and operator of publiusforum.com. Feel free to contact him with any comments or questions : EMAIL Warner Todd Huston