Anne Kornblut reminds us how the Corporate Media will try to give us a Republican President

[Karmadillo]

It's hard to imagine the Corporate Media can lie enough to convince even Americans to elect Thompson, but it's pretty clear they're willing to give it a try. If you get a chance to read the entire column, there's a telling reminder of how much the Washington insider media hates the Clintons (and, by extension, Democrats). The wretched Chris Matthews (visiting the wretched Charlie Rose show with the wretched Margaret Carlson), circa 2003, refers to the Clintons as the Menendez brothers of American politics. Whoever the Democrats nominate, they need to be prepared for Swift Boating all the way up to election day from both the Republicans and their media enablers.

http://www.dailyhowler.com/dh082007.shtml

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MARRIED TO THE MOB—A SEQUEL: Was Fred Thompson mobbed when he went to the fair? Inquiring minds ought to wonder.

Last Friday, the smarthandsomehonest Hardball idol visited the Iowa state fair in Des Moines. Here’s how Anne Kornblut began her news report in the Post, a paper which has sometimes gone out of its way to say how brightsexycharismatic Fred is:

KORNBLUT (8/18/07): Mobbed by voters at the Iowa State Fair, some of them carrying homemade signs encouraging him to run, Fred D. Thompson on Friday showed off the advantages he would enjoy as a celebrity latecomer to the 2008 Republican presidential campaign.

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Thompson “showed off the advantages he would enjoy as a celebrity” if he entered the race, Kornblut said. Later, she returned to her theme. “At the fair, was the fourth star-powered candidate to appear in three days,” she wrote, “and he drew at least as large a gathering as Giuliani had two days earlier.”

It sounded like the magic was working. But was Thompson mobbed when he went to the fair? Kornblut is becoming one of our least reliable campaign “reporters;” for that reason, we couldn’t help wondering about her upbeat opening paragraph. Meanwhile, the photos which appeared in the Post and the Times didn’t seem to show the bighandsomelug being mobbed. In both papers, photos showed Thompson walking through the fairgrounds. But no voters appeared in the photos at all—just a few cameramen and photographers. Nor did Susan Sauly say much, in her Times report, to suggest that Ole Fred had been mobbed.

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Was Thompson “mobbed” when he went to the fair? Was he “showing off the advantages he would enjoy as a celebrity?” In fact, the Des Moines Register estimated the size of the crowds when three hopefuls spoke at the state fair’s “Soapbox” this week. Here’s what the paper reported:

Clinton: “About 500 supporters, onlookers, activists and reporters listened or asked questions during the 16-minute talk.”
Giuliani: “About 300 supporters and passers-by listened as Giuliani spoke for about 20 minutes.”
Thompson: “More than 100 people met Thompson at the event.”

Thompson’s advantage as a celebrity? He may draw crowds one-third the size of his main GOP rival!

more...

[draft_mario_cuomo]

1. We should not be surprised with the FT phenomenon. He is their version of one of our candidates

I don't see why the FT phenomenon is viewed as a total fraud when many of us lapped up the same thing when it happened on our side. Look past the party labels and ideology and you will see he is to the Republicans what one candidate was to Democrats. Both filled a demand for a "savior", both were heavily built up by the corporate media, the appeal of both revolve around their personalities, and so on.