How good a job do you think the Republican partisan press -- Fox News, conservative talk shows, conservative blogs -- has done of covering the presidential nomination process during this cycle?
I think they have given too much airtime to Cain and Trump. Their coverage of Cain should have mentioned that his 999 plan would be a big tax increase for most Americans.
Some of the conservative blogs have done a better job than Fox News and the talk shows. Fox seems to have an anti-Romney bias, as does Rush Limbaugh. The best coverage tends to come from less partisan sites, such as this one and 538.com. Michael Barone has offered good insights on his Washington Examiner blog, probably the best coverage of the conservative blogs.
Sorry to crash the conservative question, but I strongly believe that the conservative press is finding it really hard to figure out when is the right time to blow the whistle on some of their ideological kin. You can sense some conservaitve commentators getting antsy with the increasing craziness of the GOP, but when they call it out, the more unscrupulous commentators deride them as turncoats. The result is that the worst people are acting as leaders of the movement. And no, writing a puff piece about what a brilliant campaign Mitt Romney has waged doesn't count as keeping it real since he's faced weak opposition and can still only get a quarter of his own party to vote for him. I've been really disappointed that more right-leaning commenators haven't had the guts to call out the shennanigans that we've been seeing recently and I'm just furious that the Beltway press refuses to piss off the Republicans no matter what craziness the Republicans engage in. Ultimately, this is all bad for the country.
The conservative media has been mostly gunning for Ron Paul -- even those who I thought were sympathetic to his libertarianism seem to be primarily motivated by protecting party orthodoxy. The lesson for libertarians should be clear -- instead of denouncing everyone as tools of the corrupt corporate media, they need to build their own media. They don't need to go head-to-head with Fox and Rush, but they do need something more than Reason magazine and the barbarian hoards of Paulistas.
I think they have given too much airtime to Cain and Trump. Their coverage of Cain should have mentioned that his 999 plan would be a big tax increase for most Americans.
ReplyDeleteSome of the conservative blogs have done a better job than Fox News and the talk shows. Fox seems to have an anti-Romney bias, as does Rush Limbaugh. The best coverage tends to come from less partisan sites, such as this one and 538.com. Michael Barone has offered good insights on his Washington Examiner blog, probably the best coverage of the conservative blogs.
ReplyDeleteSorry to crash the conservative question, but I strongly believe that the conservative press is finding it really hard to figure out when is the right time to blow the whistle on some of their ideological kin. You can sense some conservaitve commentators getting antsy with the increasing craziness of the GOP, but when they call it out, the more unscrupulous commentators deride them as turncoats. The result is that the worst people are acting as leaders of the movement. And no, writing a puff piece about what a brilliant campaign Mitt Romney has waged doesn't count as keeping it real since he's faced weak opposition and can still only get a quarter of his own party to vote for him. I've been really disappointed that more right-leaning commenators haven't had the guts to call out the shennanigans that we've been seeing recently and I'm just furious that the Beltway press refuses to piss off the Republicans no matter what craziness the Republicans engage in. Ultimately, this is all bad for the country.
ReplyDeleteThe conservative media has been mostly gunning for Ron Paul -- even those who I thought were sympathetic to his libertarianism seem to be primarily motivated by protecting party orthodoxy. The lesson for libertarians should be clear -- instead of denouncing everyone as tools of the corrupt corporate media, they need to build their own media. They don't need to go head-to-head with Fox and Rush, but they do need something more than Reason magazine and the barbarian hoards of Paulistas.
ReplyDelete