Hillary Clinton’s media problem, Part 1 million

[Metric System]

I found this article via a retweet on Jon Lovett's Twitter.

***If you did something productive with your Sunday — if you went to church, took a nature hike, composted leaves from the back yard, concocted an alibi for the cops — you may have seen only the headlines about Hillary Rodham Clinton's "Meet the Press" interview. According to those headlines, she dismissed the unkillable scandal over her use of a private e-mail server as a "conspiracy theory."

These headlines are true, insofar as how Clinton used the phrase "conspiracy theory" as she answered one of Chuck Todd's questions. "She is now blaming a ‘conspiracy theory’ for her sinking poll numbers," grumbled a spokesman for the Republican National Committee. The "conspiracy theory" quote was even quickly tweeted by the opposition research wizards at America Rising.

What hasn't been mentioned: Clinton was actually calling back to something Todd said at the start of the interview. "I know there's always conspiracy theories out there," he said knowingly, referring to rumors that Clinton had sat down with him only after some subjects were barred from discussion. He then made absolutely clear: "There are no limitations to this interview."

Clinton agreed — "as far as I know, that's true" — and plowed through seven e-mail questions. Todd wound up the eighth question by asking whether the Democratic presidential front-runner could "respond to an alternative explanation that has sort of been circulating." Only then did Clinton laugh: "Another conspiracy theory?"

None of this will matter when it comes to the way Clinton is covered, and I already have designated a section of my inbox for the complaints that I am carrying her water here. (Why don't I work for Media Matters? Indeed!) And that's the point. The media's willingness to believe the worst about Clinton, and the long political history it can draw from, has been the single toughest external problem for her campaign. Call it Clinton's Razor: In analyzing her answers, the media usually chooses the one that assumes the worst intentions.***

Full article at link:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2015/09/28/hillary-clintons-media-problem-part-1-million/?postshare=5991443451362957

[Hortensis]

1. Politico 2014: "If she doesn't run, the single biggest factor holding her back will be the media."

WHAT IS HILLARY CLINTON AFRAID OF: THE MEDIA ISSUE

"Over the 25 years Hillary Clinton has spent in the national spotlight, she’s been smeared and stereotyped, the subject of dozens of over-hyped or downright fictional stories and books alleging, among other things, that she is a lesbian, a Black Widow killer who offed Vincent Foster then led an unprecedented coverup, a pathological liar, a real estate swindler, a Commie, a harridan.

Every aspect of her personal life has been ransacked; there’s no part of her 5-foot-7-inch body that hasn’t come under microscopic scrutiny, from her ankles to her neckline to her myopic blue eyes—not to mention the ever-changing parade of hairstyles that friends say reflects creative restlessness and enemies read as a symbol of somebody who doesn’t stand for anything.

Forget all that troubled history, and a Clinton run for president in 2016 seems like a no-brainer, an inevitable next step after the redemption of her past few years as a well-regarded, if not quite historic, secretary of state. But remember the record, and you’ll understand why Clinton, although rested, rich and seemingly ready, has yet to commit to a presidential race (people around her insist it’s not greater than a 50-50 proposition), even as she’s an overwhelming favorite."

"If she doesn’t run, the single biggest factor holding her back will be the media, according to an informal survey of three dozen friends, allies and former aides interviewed for this article. As much as anything else, her ambivalence about the race, they told us, reflects her distaste for and apprehension of a rapacious, shallow and sometimes outright sexist national political press corps acting as enablers for her enemies on the right."

[link:http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2014/05/hillary-clinton-media-105901#ixzz3n9qZG5s5|

[Eleanors38]

2. While I support Sanders for prez, this is a good analysis of the MSM's...

Well-worn-rut they have made re: Hillary's candidacy. Two trends which feed this phenomena:

1). The MSM no longer analyzes the stances of candidates and parties for truth or efficacy, they only throw it out there for any and everyone to argue with.

2). The above is abetted by the established practice of Beltway Democrats of not seriously challenging the GOPers cock-strutting pronouncements which DO IN FACT SET THE TERMS OF DEBATE, preferring any controversy to just go away so they won't by accident say something cogent and aggressive which might run afoul of the Party's corporate centrist backers.

It 's unfortunate, but the attitude and style of Beltway Democrats enables the dynamic which MSM uses againt Hillary. It 's a petard-hoisting problem.

[Hortensis]

3. Eleanor, you're underestimating by far the arrogance and involvement of the press

in our elections. The eastern MSM, owned and run by a few extremely powerful men, ARE a power center all by themselves, and the decisions on which candidates they will push forward and which they will destroy no longer have relation to what the people want, what the people in the parties are saying or not, or reporting the news.

These are the workings of both the Big Money owners and their insider press corps employees who have become severely corrupted by self interest, group-think, and conceit.

BTW, you have probably noticed that Bernie is severely under-reported even though his astonishing rise is a major news story. What would be in it for the men at the top to help HIM become president? If they start pushing him, it'll be to bring down our frontrunner, HRC, but my guess is they're hoping to use convivial, establishment white male Biden for that. A satisfactory fallback president should the GOP lose.

[Eleanors38]

5. Actually, I am a little...

The reason I underestimate MSM is because its influence has declined significantly as corporate interests have bought it up, mainly to remove a thorn from its side and not to make money, and because so much of it has shrunk back to far-right agit-prop mouth pieces. If the kind of bias we see now were occurring 30, even 20 years ago, it would be a far greater problem as U.S. culture and society was defined and mythologized by a mass-media model. It is no longer defined as such.

I generally agree with your outlook.

[Hortensis]

6. I agree the power of independent MSM journalism has declined significantly, E, but

I wasn't talking about journalism but the powers that have taken it over.

Now that you mention it, though, I am imagining this happening 20-30 years ago. No Clinton presidency perhaps. No Indomitable RBG, no Breyer, no hundreds of Clinton appointees to federal courts. At least Bush I would have filled one of those terms, so militarily that could have been worse...

[Warren DeMontague]

4. If she was the skilled politician we've been assured she is, she'd know not to use those words.

Complaining "it's not fair" about the media sort of defeats this meme that Hillary "is the one candidate who can eat attacks for breakfast"

Either she can, or she can't. While there may be no "there, there" to the email deal, her handling of it has been sub-par. Many of her troubles started with that "what, with a cloth?" News conference. She has no one to blame for that but herself.

[Hortensis]

7. And Howard Dean's "troubles" when the press fell on him like a pack of wolves

and took him off our ballots began with, "What happened?"

[dsc]

8. yes just like the talentless hack Bill Clinton

and that other talentless hack Barack Obama both of which got treated by the press pretty much the same way. Maybe every Democrat just happens to be a talentless hack.

[Warren DeMontague]

9. No, if you really thought about it, you'd see the difference.

Because those two guys know how to deal with this stuff. Like it or not, HRC has not shown anything close to that level of aptitude this cycle.