Media Bias In Word And Image
First the hors d’oeuvre….
Tommy Christopher considers himself a reporter, not an opinion journalist or columnist. Yet he’s strangely pleased when White House spokesman Jay Carney answers his question.
I then asked Carney to respond to the charge that it’s hypocritical for the President to attack Mitt Romney’s record at Bain Capital, yet raise money from private equity donors like Blackstone Group president Tony James, and top Obama bundler Jonathan Lavine, currently a managing director at Bain. It was a question that a campaign spokesman inexpertly dodged last night, but that Carney nailed.
I was under the impression that “reporters” were unbiased fact finders who asked hard questions to keep public officials accountable. Yet here’s Tommy acting like a judge on Dancing With The Stars celebrating Carney for hitting his softball question out of the park.
That got me thinking maybe it’s time to contact the White House Correspondents Association about Tommy’s “cheering in the press box”.
Based on the group’s home page photo, something tells me that might be a waste of time.
Well, surely the WHCA had an equally flattering photo of George W. Bush? Er….
Smiling, happy Obamas vs. Under siege by the Guardians of the Republic.
The WHCA liked that picture of a besiged Bush so much, they left it on their contact page.
Guess I’ll skip that note of protest about Tommy.
Romney’s Big Education Speech
It’s safe to say...I’m not a fan of it.
On the other hand, I’m a conservative so I’m not the target audience. It will probably play well with the groups it was aimed at (Moms, mushy suburban voters, etc).
You can read the whole thing here, I’ll just pull out a few bits that illustrate my problem with his approach.
More than 150 years ago, our nation pioneered public education. We’ve now fallen way behind.
Now coincidence isn’t causality but the federal government wasn’t involved in public education when it was pioneered and I bet if you look at the end of the golden age so many seem to yearn for, you’d find that the more the federal government got involved the worst things got. Now, I’m not saying the federal government is responsible for all the ills of public education or getting the feds out of it is a silver bullet fix but surely the “severely conservative” candidate would show some modesty about the ability the national government’s ability to do something in this area.
Sadly, that’s not the case.
Let’s not kid ourselves – we are in the midst of a National Education Emergency. The only reason we don’t hear more about it is because our economic troubles have taken our national attention away from the classroom. But if unemployment was where it should be and home values were going up, there is no question that the crisis in American education would be the great cause of this campaign.
Of course, the jobs and housing failures of these past few years only make the need for educational improvement all the more critical. So I’ll be blunt: I don’t like the direction of American education, and as President, I will do everything in my power to reverse this decline.
Much as you have in your own business careers, I’ve found that you can’t expect dramatically different results unless you are open to dramatic change. As president, I will pursue bold policy changes that will restore the promise of our nation’s education system.
Oh good. Another national emergency that the President is going to take on. Because if there’s one thing this country has tried over the last half century it’s big “dramatic change” in what DC demands of local schools. Of course that’s always worked in the past so surely it will again.
As President, I will give the parents of every low-income and special needs student the chance to choose where their child goes to school. For the first time in history, federal education funds will be linked to a student, so that parents can send their child to any public or charter school, or to a private school, where permitted. And I will make that choice meaningful by ensuring there are sufficient options to exercise it.
To receive the full complement of federal education dollars, states must provide students with ample school choice. In addition, digital learning options must not be prohibited. And charter schools or similar education choices must be scaled up to meet student demand.
I guess that sounds nice if you accept the premiss of federal funding but I’m not sure how that work in reality. On many occasions Romney has said the answer to big problems is freeing states to be more creative and bloc-granting their federal funds. How would a state or local school district do any planning if they didn’t know how the parents would decide how to direct their personal federal money? If the money isn’t really in the control of the parents but just a requirement that state and local governments offer a menu of schools, how is this real reform and why is the federal government better placed to make the judgement on what’s sufficient than state or local governments?
Parental choice will hold schools responsible for results, but parents can only exercise that choice effectively if they have good information. No Child Left Behind helped our nation take a giant step forward in bridging this information gap. But the law is not without its weaknesses. As president, I will break the political logjam that has prevented successful reform of the law. I will reduce federal micromanagement while redoubling efforts to ensure that schools are held responsible for results.
For example, parents shouldn’t have to navigate a cryptic evaluation system to figure out how their kids’ schools are performing. States must provide a simple-to-read and widely available public report card that evaluates each school. These report cards will provide accurate and easy-to-understand information about student and school performance. States will continue to design their own standards and tests, but the report cards will provide information that parents can use to make informed choices.
Huh?
Romney is going to reduce micro-management but then mandate “simple-to-read” report cards for schools. Obviously federal bureaucrats will write regulations about what “easy-to-read”, “easy-to-understand” and “widely available” mean. They will also pass judgements on the materials create at every level and then require changes as needed. No micro-managing here!
We will take bold steps to ensure our system welcomes and rewards the best teachers. As president, I will make it my goal to ensure that every classroom has a quality teacher.
Oh good…more bold steps. The idea that a President can or even should “ensure” every teacher is a quality teacher is laughable on its face. Kind of like the idea the federal government (or any government) can ensure that no child is ever left behind.
Yes, that’s just goofy rhetoric but it’s important. For too long politicians, especially at the federal level, have overstated what they can provide and what people should rightfully expect from them. At some point if conservatives don’t start saying, “no” and explaining why, what’s the point of this exercise in republican government?
There are currently 82 programs in ten agencies that spend $4 billion on teacher quality. As president, I will consolidate these programs, and block grant them to states that adopt innovative policies. For example, states will be rewarded if they regularly evaluate teachers for their effectiveness and compensate the best teachers for their success. Teaching is a highly valued profession that must attract and retain the best and brightest.
So a President Romney isn’t interested in scaling back the reach of the federal government, just “consolidating” and make existing programs more efficient. And help me out here, when did ensuring “teacher quality” become something the federal government is supposed to be doing? And why in the world does anyone think it’s even remotely qualified to do it?
In 2008, the National Education Association spent more money on campaigns than any other organization in the country. And 90% of those funds went to Democrats.
That’s a great talking point and he should hammer the hell out of it.
When I became Governor, we were in the midst of instituting tough, bi-partisan education reforms. They included the requirement that every student pass a test to graduate from high school. The test came under attack from the unions. But we stood our ground.
We also offered our best students a four-year, tuition-free scholarship to the state college of their choice. I called it the John and Abigail Adams Scholarship, after two Massachusetts citizens who understood the importance of education to our nation.
Every year I’d ask a school principal to invite the students who scored in the top 25% on the exam to a special assembly. After some words about hard work, I’d ask them to reach under their chair and remove an envelope that had been taped there. And I’d watch as each of them would open the enclosed letter.
Every year, I’d stand in front of the room and the same scene would unfold:
At first, you could hear a pin drop. Then each student’s eyes would get big and proud smiles would creep across their faces as they found out how well they had done on the exam. And then they would read the part of the letter where they learned they’d earned an Adams Scholarship. The smiles turned into cheers – and the sound was deafening.
I got more hugs on Adams Scholarship day than I did at Christmas. Kids would bring me their cell phones so I could tell their parents the exciting news. And parents – more than once – told me that they had been worried they would not be able to afford college and that the scholarship would make a difference.
I can’t tell you how much I hate that crap.
First, it follows a section in his speech where he talks about government fueling the rising cost of college. So hey, let’s celebrate giving out state funded degrees! What about tax payers who had to scrimp and save to send their kids to school and pay the freight for these “free” scholarships?
Which brings me to my biggest pet peeve…I hate politicians who get off on getting thanks for spending other people’s money. How about instead of all the hugs you got, you suggest these fortunate students write letters thanking random taxpayers who are actually footing the bill whether they like it or not?
I think Romney has the right instincts about school choice and his critique of Obama and the Democrats favoring teacher unions over students is spot on but I don’t see how his faith in his ability to develop a better technocratic, top-down solution is going to produce anything other than more money for those very unions.
Scott Walker and Chris Christie (and as I was quickly reminded, Bobby Jindal) have done more to advance the cause of education reform in the last two years than any President ever can. I’d rather see a plan that forces governors like them be responsible for the quality of education in their state and let the people demand action from them. No federal program, no matter how efficient, “bold” or “dramatic” can take the place of solid state and local leadership.
Why Romney Was Wrong, VERY WRONG, To “Repudiate” Wright Attack PAC Plan
By now you’ve probably heard about the proposed plan for a Super PAC to focus on Reverend Wright around the time of the DNC Convention this summer. The plan, since rejected, set off the predictable outrage.
Before being killed in the crib, the “plan” managed to snag the Romney campaign. First Romney’s spokesman and then Romney himself bluntly and explicitly said he “repudiates” the effort.
This is bad for a couple of reason.
First and foremost, it puts Romney in the position of being the hall monitor for the right. Every time someone on the right does something, the press will run to Mitt and ask him if he “repudiates” them. Now he’s going to be constantly choosing between elements of the coalition. A candidate needs to be uniting as much of the potential vote as possible. He should not be the hall monitor in charge of scolding wayward children.
This is a neat trick the media plays. They will never ask Obama about any of his supporters but they’ll run to Mitt and demand he chastise some county legislator in East Podunk but misogynist Bill Maher? Never heard of him.
If Romney thinks chastising every conservative who says something slightly off key about Obama will buy him any grace on his Mormonism or any issue, he’s nuts.
What should Romney have said about this? Something like, “We don’t control that group, support them or know them but everyone is welcome to participate in this process. For our part, we are focused on Obama’s many failures like…….” He would have distanced himself from the issue, not slapped around potential supporters and focused back on Obama.
Personally, I’m not at all convinced that any of this ancillary stuff (Wright, college transcripts, Bill Ayers, who wrote his books) is even remotely important. Maybe 4 years ago when people were learning about Obama but now they know and they don’t seem to approve. Still if elements of the base want to go off and hit him on these things (Mitt shouldn’t get involved either way, stay focused on big ticket items) fine. We should be able to walk and chew gum at the same time. The division of labor will work nicely.
What really will annoy me is people who have been saying “McCain wanted to lose like a gentleman” and “Vet the President” suddenly proclaiming this move by Mitt to be a solid bit of tactics. Don’t be a hack and a shill.
A Rebublican DREAM Act?
Is Marco Rubio nuts?
Rubio, who notably called on his party to tone down the anti-immigrant talk earlier this year, is working on a plan that would allow young illegal immigrants who came to the United States with their parents to apply for non-immigrant visas. They would be permitted to stay in the country to study or work, could obtain a driver’s license but would not be able to vote. They later could apply for residency, but they would not have a special path to citizenship.
So to sum up-
We’re going to grant the premiss the Democrats have been running on that this is something we have to act on (separate from border security/enforcement)
We’re going to do this to try and win votes of voters who will simply say, “Um, why should I support your half-assed measure when the other guys are offering me the whole thing?”
We’d also offer the Democrats a new and exciting line of attack…”Republicans think you’re good enough to work for them and fight and die for this country but not to vote”. Some enterprising liberal will no doubt find a way to equate that with slavery. Fun times!
And while we’re getting no credit or votes from this, we’ll also be doing the Democrats job for them by driving a wedge between members of our party.
If Rubio really goes ahead with this it will do significant damage to the GOP and Mitt Romney (who will have to pick sides between seeming anti immigrant or the GOP’s enforcement first base. He’ll get no credit if he goes with the former and will be bashed if he sides with the latter).
You know who would love to run on who can be more pro-amnesty than anyone? Barack Obama, that’s who. It beats talking about this economy and especially the part where Hispanic unemployment is running about 3.5% higher than for the general population.
All this damage over a plan that will win no votes and will never see the light of day in the Senate or the House.
Seriously, is Rubio nuts?
UPDATE: Rubio talks about his plan.
Rubio said he has not had contact w/ Romney or his camp about a new DREAM Act but believes his staff has informed Romney team of work on it.
Rubio says he hopes Romney will be open to his plan once its developed and says Romney is “now the leader of the Republican party”
I’m sure Mitt will be thrilled with this. He’s going to be asked about it and then it will be an issue. Especially once he equivocates on it.
Thanks Marco!
I think Rubio is about to become a lot less popular with conservatives.
Jesse Kelly Wins GOP Primary For Special Election To Fill Gabriel Gifford’s Seat
The Iraq War vet and small business owner won pretty handily in a four way primary. Now it’s on to the June special election.
Jesse Kelly won the Republican primary for Arizona’s 8th Congressional District Tuesday and will now take on Democrat Ron Barber in a special election to decide who completes former Rep. Gabrielle Giffords’ term, the Arizona Daily Star reported.
…
Barber, who served as Giffords’ district director and took two bullets in the shooting, has been endorsed by the former congresswoman. He has already raised more than $500,000 for the June special election.
Kelly ran against Giffords in 2010 losing by less than 2%. I profiled Kelly during that race, highlighting his views on “bi-partisanship”.
Kelly, an Iraq war veteran who grew up in Montana and has never held elective office, scoffs at the idea of bipartisanship.
“Bipartisanship in Washington means Republicans selling out their conservative principles in order to appear nice on MSNBC,” he told a town-hall meeting at the Oro Valley Country Club.
It’s going to be a tough race given the emotions around the Gifford’s shooting and his opponent already has a head-start, so if you have any money left after tax day, you might want to consider supporting Kelly.
Romney And The Etch A Sketch
Just wanted to collect my Twitter rant in one place:
I’m going to give my “No Romney Snark” thing another try but first….
Etch A Sketch wasn’t a gaffe, it was confirmation for what a lot of us have been saying about Romney for years.
I know Team Mitt needed to spin it but he wasn’t asked about strategy, which states they’d visit, organization, etc.
The question and answer were about ideological positions Mitt has taken. The fact Fehrnstrom gave that answer is a sign of things to come.
I think Romney backers would be better served by admitting their guy is a moderate. Insisting that he’s something he’s not has prolonged…
accepting him as the guy. You can’t tell people they are idiots for noticing what’s obvious. It simply forces a confrontation with no end.
No matter how much you claim otherwise, I’m simply not going to say “there are five lights”[*] just to validate your beliefs.
Team Mitt could have argued that there were no legit conservatives running and he was the best we could do but this charade forced a battle.
What’s done is done. I’ll do my best not to snark on Mitt. Unless he steps in it again, likely after his next big win.
*For those who don’t get the reference….
Captain Carroll “Lex” LeFon (USN, Ret)…RIP
It’s a strange world we live in where we are friends with people we’ve never met. That’s the beauty of this internet thing of ours. The tragic part is when we lose one of the friends we haven’t really met but we known them, or at least the part of them they choose to share with us. While we are still stunned at the loss of Andrew Breitbart, many of us follow the world through the eyes of milbloggers have lost another friend, Lex of Neptunus Lex. It wasn’t the random and almost unfathomable loss of a man in his prime passing on his way home but rather an ever present possible outcome for a man who slipped into a fighter jet and took the skies.
In Better Days…Lex and his wife
There will plenty of investigations, talk and not doubt more than a few recriminations about the crash itself (you can read about it here) but I’ll leave all of that for others and another time. Today I’d like to share a few thoughts about a man who serve his country, took many of us to sea with his words and loved a family that can only be devastated today. I never served in the military but I love the Navy. When milbloggers started appearing on the scene a few years back I sought out Navycentric ones as much as possible. As much as I love folks like Bubblehead, Froggy, CDRSalamander and the gangs of Information Dissemination and the USNI blog, Lex was always my first millblog read. Partially it was the writing and the stories that captivated me but we also shared something…we were both pilots. Now, I’m taking some liberties there because a man with thousands of hours in high performance military jets and hundreds of carrier traps like Lex only shares the title pilot with someone like me who has a single engine private license in the broadest possible sense. But it’s an important sense. There’s something about being at the controls of a plane when thee weight comes off the wheels and you are flying. I can’t explain it but Lex could and I loved living vicariously through his stories.
It was a joy to see him transition from retired fighter pilot used to thousands of pounds of thrust and speeds measured in mach numbers to planes that put out a few dozen horse power and weren’t much faster than your average car and probably not any faster than his motorcycle. But it was flying and that was enough, it was everything. Slowly you could see in his writing that Lex was coming to love the joys more basic stick and rudder flying and the sheer joy that comes from a well executed landing. Again, it’s another feeling I can’t explain but Lex could.
Not surprisingly though that wasn’t enough for a man who spent his adult life flinging himself and his machine through the air and he took a part-time job flying mach dog fights for tourists, recipients of birthday presents and the like. But it was flying and that was everything.
After leaving the service Lex moved onto a job with a defense contractor that seemed to involve more computers, algorithms and meetings than a guy like Lex could stand. So not to long ago he took the leap and went to work for a defense contractor that provided adversary fighters to help Naval Aviators training for upcoming deployments.
As I said, I didn’t know Lex and he didn’t know me except for what we’d read from each other. And that was enough. We exchanged a few emails from time to time or a note on Twitter but when I needed to find out how to help someone get an embark on a carrier out San Diego I emailed Lex. Less than an hour latter I got an email back…from the public affairs officer for the Chief of Naval Operations. Yeah, that’s the kind of guy Lex was.
His blog was more than sea stories or “and there I was in the cockpit” tales, it was politics and life, including the painfully personal and joyful pride. Personally I think the crowing jewel of his writing was an amazing series of posts he collected under the title “Rhythms”, which chronicled the events of a carrier deployment. I wrote to him to suggest he send it to a publisher. He replied he did but there wasn’t any interest since it really wasn’t in novel form and that maybe someday he’d revisit it. With the increasing popularity of e-books I meant to write him to see if he’d explored that but I never got around to it.
I always figured I’d make it out to San Diego, the city he seemed to have a love (weather) hate (cost and traffic) relationship with and buy him one or two of his beloved Guinness. It was not to be.
You can read more tributes to Lex here or if you’re so inclined, stop by his site and leave a word for his family (his wife and 3 kids, including his son who is now a Navy helicopter pilot). Fair winds and following seas, sir.
Why I Hate Mitt Romney: He Is Like An Internet Troll
In 2008 I wasn’t on Team Romney but I didn’t hate him either. This time around I hate him with a burning passion. I’ve been trying to figure out why and I think last night’s debate finally clarified it for me. Romney is an internet troll.
We’ve all been in the comment section of a blog when some idiot comes along and starts making outlandish statements that derails the conversation. They are impervious to facts, unconcerned with their obvious contradictions and every time they are cornered they simply say something more idiotic so that you start chasing them down that rabbit hole. All the while they ignore all the links you offer to refute them and refuse to provide any to support their claims.
Take a look at last night’s debate and you’ll recognize typical troll behavior from Romney.
Rick Santorum pointed out that RomneyCare was the basis for ObamaCare. This is simply fact. Romney’s response?
And let me — let me — let me mention one more — the reason we have Obama Care — the reason we have Obama Care is because the Senator you supported over Pat Toomey in Pennsylvania, Arlen Specter, the pro- choice Senator of Pennsylvania that you supported and endorsed in a race over Pat Toomey, he voted for Obama Care. If you had not supported him, if we had said, no to Arlen Specter, we would not have Obama Care. So don’t look at me. Take a look in the mirror.
Wait, what? How about we blame Specter’s parents. I mean, if they hadn’t had him, he wouldn’t have grown up to be a lousy Senator.
I disagreed with Santorum and George W. Bush’s support for Arlen Specter but this is ridiculous. No one had any clue who Barack Obama was in 2004, let alone he’d win the presidency someday and 6 years later Specter would change parties and vote for a specific bill.
And if we’re going “there” let’s remember Romney endorsed and was endorsed by a very, very liberal Democrat. Oh and take a look at who has endorsed Romney.
Now I get why Romney doesn’t want to talk about ObamaCare now but remember, he won’t be able to talk about in a general election campaign against Obama. Of course, Obama will bring it up all the time and Mitt won’t be able to change the subject with lame deflections like that.
Santorum also pointed out that Romney was a hypocrite for attacking him on earmarks while as Governor and head of the Salt Lake City Olympics Romney asked for and received hundreds of millions of dollars in earmarks.
Mitt’s response?
ROMNEY: I didn’t follow all of that, but I can tell you this — I would put a ban on earmarks. I think it opens the door to excessive spending, spending on projects that don’t need to be done.
I think there are a lot of projects that have been voted for. You voted to the “Bridge to Nowhere.” I think these earmarks, we’ve had it with them.
SANTORUM: Yes.
ROMNEY: If Congress wants to vote in favor of a bill, they should take that bill, bring it forward with committees, have people say — vote it up or down on the floor of the House or the Senate, have the president say yes or no, and move forward. But the earmark process is broken. There are thousands and thousands of earmarks, money being used inappropriately.
And I’ll tell you this — he mentioned coming to the Olympics, coming to the United States Congress, asking for support. No question about it. That’s the nature of what it is when you lead an organization or a state.
You come to Congress and you say, these are the things we need. In the history of the Olympic movement, the federal government has always provided the transportation and security. So we came to the federal government asking for help on transportation and security.
I was fighting for those things. Our games were successful. But while I was fighting to save the Olympics, you were fighting to save the “Bridge to Nowhere.”
So earmarks are good and virtuous when Romney asks for and receives them but wasteful and corrupting when others do? The “logic” of a troll.
When asked to use one word to describe himself Romney said, “resolute”. In what way, beyond his personal ambition, is Mitt Romney “resolute”? His record of flips and flops is long and well known.
Romney once again claimed last night that he “enabled our state police to enforce illegal immigration laws”. This is misleading at best, a lie at worst. But Mitt, like a troll simply makes assertions without any regard for the truth. They both hope you are simply to stupid to catch them.
Mitt gets away with this in the primaries because his opponents aren’t very good at knocking him down, have their own problematic records, don’t have the resources to do enough research (though all you need is a couple of interns and Google) or the money to exploit his weaknesses. Romney on the other hand has no qualms about lying and enough money to repeat the lies enough that people think they are true.
It’s a strategy that will likely be enough to get him through the primaries (barely) but if his supporters think it won’t all come back to bite him (and us) in the butt in the general they are fooling themselves.
