What to make of a media outlet that claims the Obama and the White House are manipulating the media coverage?

Obama, the puppet master

President Barack Obama is a master at limiting, shaping and manipulating media coverage of himself and his White House.

Not for the reason that conservatives suspect: namely, that a liberal press willingly and eagerly allows itself to get manipulated. Instead, the mastery mostly flows from a White House that has taken old tricks for shaping coverage (staged leaks, friendly interviews) and put them on steroids using new ones (social media, content creation, precision targeting). And it’s an equal opportunity strategy: Media across the ideological spectrum are left scrambling for access.

The results are transformational. With more technology, and fewer resources at many media companies, the balance of power between the White House and press has tipped unmistakably toward the government. This is an arguably dangerous development, and one that the Obama White House — fluent in digital media and no fan of the mainstream press — has exploited cleverly and ruthlessly. And future presidents from both parties will undoubtedly copy and expand on this approach.

“The balance of power used to be much more in favor of the mainstream press,” said Mike McCurry, who was press secretary to President Bill Clinton during the Monica Lewinsky scandal. Nowadays, he said, “The White House gets away with stuff I would never have dreamed of doing. When I talk to White House reporters now, they say it’s really tough to do business with people who don’t see the need to be cooperative.” Read the rest at: Obama, the puppet master - POLITICO.com Print View

I call bullshit! If an honest and courageous media were to print some of Washington’s dirty little secrets – apparently widely known to the media – the balance of power would shift directly to the media. The media that was known in past eras as being able to speak “truth to power” and “let the chips fall where they may.”

Notice how the author suggests that the conservatives suspect that the liberal press willingly and eagerly allows itself to get manipulated. And then goes on to say that the “master mostly flows from a White House" using old tricks for shaping coverage. This is only part of the story. The part the media wants you to believe.

I have an alternate scenario comprised of two parts.

Part one, that the government is intertwined with the business affairs of the large corporations doing business with the government – and that the corporate executives are so afraid for their bottom line and their own jobs that they “go along to get along.” I suspect this is the case with Obama cheerleader General Electric whose media outlets appeared to be all Obama all of the time. Has anyone ever provided a list of government media buys by media outlet? I think not. Has anyone ever provided a list of favorable tax rulings for media companies? I think not.

Part two, that the mainstream media companies are trying to salvage a broken business model in the day of cable news and the internet. Competition for ears and eyeballs is fierce. And, that the mainstream media which much rather have packaged stories handed to them, than spend the time, energy and money pursuing stories on their own. As long as they achieve parity with other mainstream media outlets and preserve the status quo, the appear to satisfy their corporate bosses. It’s not a case of “no guts, no glory,” but rather, “no unexplainable losses, I keep my job.”

Whining, sniveling knackers …

One need only refer to the latest whining from the White House Press Corps about the lack of Obama unavailability on his golf outing with Tiger Woods. A subject that resulted in wasted ink and electrons. The pool reporters aboard Air Force One were offered a few moments of “off the record” coverage – and they agreed. These pool reporters did not do their jobs. They should have told Obama that what he says is not only on the record, but if he did not provide substantive fare, they would simply write about Benghazi and point out the egregious lies he told his fellow Americans. That is, if they had the balls to do it – which they didn’t and apparently don’t. 

Bottom line …

 There is a reason that the mainstream media is failing to maintain their credibility and audience – they lie to the American people by proxy, carrying news coverage that is false, misleading or both. Have you ever wondered why most of the left-leaning cable and internet outlets are not bigger successes? Because Americans are tired of “doom and gloom.” Shrill lies obvious to even the oblivious among us. Calls for continual sacrifice when we see the leader of the free world spending time with celebrities and spending taxpayer’s money with impunity. Precisely the reason that Fox flourishes, Bill O’Reilly has the largest cable audience, and Rush Limbaugh is feted as the savior of AM talk radio. They may have a point of view, but they also present both sides of the story. In fact, wanting the other side to present their story so that they can make their case and point out the untruths.

So when the mainstream media tells the American people that it is Obama that is unfairly manipulating them, it is as big a lie as blaming the 9/11 attack in Benghazi on a little-watched video trailer to cover-up a covert CIA operation to allegedly transfer heavy military arms to terrorists bent on jihad.

-- steve

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