(HOST) As the Presidential election campaign moves into the home stretch, the role of the news media has once again become a hot topic. Commentator Barrie Dunsmore, who for more than three decades was a diplomatic and foreign correspondent for ABC News, joins the conversation.
(DUNSMORE) I was critical of much of the news coverage of the Democratic convention because of its obsession with the Clintons – to the exclusion of nearly everything else.
That is entirely different from the barrage of criticism directed at the news media at the Republican convention when – Elitist! Sexist! Unfair! – were among the epithets hurled at journalists by virtually every speaker. The new vice-presidential nominee, Governor Sarah Palin, wasted no time in establishing her Republican anti-media credentials by also going on the attack – to the sheer delight of the delegates.
The ostensible issue was the media’s handling of the revelation that Palin’s 17 year old daughter was pregnant. Let me remind you that while such rumors had been rattling about on the Internet, they were not reported in the mainstream media until after the McCain campaign itself went public with the story.
For those who say candidates’ children should be out of bounds for the news media – I agree – except when the children are being presented as evidence of the candidate’s qualifications for office. And can you imagine the cry that would have gone up in Republican ranks if during the Clinton Administration, or even after for that matter, Chelsea Clinton was suddenly discovered to be pregnant?
I believe the McCain campaign used the pregnancy story as a way to cow the news media. Rick Davis, the campaign’s manager said as much when he warned that Ms. Palin would not meet with reporters until they were willing to treat her "with some level of respect and deference." Excuse me – but in a democracy it is not the role of the news media to show deference to politicians.
When Governor Palin eventually answers questions about her policies – and her record, I would hope no reporter will show her deference – as they certainly never did to Hillary Clinton. MSNBC’s Chris Matthews even went so far as to say Clinton would never have become a successful political figure if her husband hadn’t cheated on her.
Matthews was forced to apologize for that remark. But after the Republican convention when the news media, and particularly NBC News, had been vilified as part of the liberal elite, Matthews and his side-kick Keith Olberman were demoted. They had been MSNBC’s anchors throughout the primaries and conventions but have been replaced and reduced to the commentator role. Frankly, I have the old fashioned belief that television anchors should be non-partisan, so on one level I think – good riddance. But there’s something about this that troubles me.
After 9/11, the Bush Administration successfully intimidated the news media by equating criticism of its policies to being unpatriotic – and it worked – which made it much easier to sell the American people on the Iraq War. The news media found their voices with the Katrina fiasco. It would be a tragedy if critical voices were lost again, just when the country is approaching one of the real turning points in American history.