The press in the U.S. has long been referred to as the fourth branch of government, meaning that although without any vested powers constitutionally (other than freedom) it carried a duty to provide a check on government’s power and actions by examining and reporting to the citizenry just what government was seeking and doing in any given matter. The media has of course always cherished and fostered this perception, as it serves to improve their standing and heighten their perceived importance in society.
Many conservatives have long believed that the press was imbalanced in their willingness and/or ability to provide the same sort of critiques of liberals and conservatives in government due to the overwhelming numbers of liberals working in reporting and editorial positions in the major news outlets – the flagships of news media, if you will.
Watching the 2008 presidential election campaign did nothing to lessen this impression among conservatives, as they watched a very young and exceptionally inexperienced candidate float through the usually stormy campaign waters with scarcely any critical examination of glaring incongruities in his positions. The press fawned over candidate Obama as though he were the favorite son.
The adoring crowd of media has continued their adoration into the Obama presidency, says Robert J. Samuelson in a Newsweek piece. A study by the Pew Research Center finds that Obama has received a much greater proportion of favorable coverage of both he and his initiatives than either Clinton or Bush did during the comparable period of their administrations. It seems it’s all love, all the time for the NY/DC journalist crowd when it comes to Obama. Says Samuelson:
The Obama infatuation is a great unreported story of our time. Has any recent president basked in so much favorable media coverage? Well, maybe John Kennedy for a moment, but no president since. On the whole, this is not healthy for America.
Our political system works best when a president faces checks on his power. But the main checks on Obama are modest. They come from congressional Democrats, who largely share his goals if not always his means. The leaderless and confused Republicans don’t provide effective opposition. And the press—on domestic, if not foreign, policy—has so far largely abdicated its role as skeptical observer.
Yes, the media has essentially abdicated their assumed role as watchdogs-in-chief now that their beloved Obama is in the White House. The “fourth branch” has become the public relations office of the Executive Branch. If you’re waiting for the NY Times to dig in and find out what it is that is creating the awful stench of corruption coming from Obama’s friends at ACORN, you’ll have to wait. They spiked at the last minute that story at the last minute in the weeks before the election, leaving the reporter who had developed the sources and worked the story exasperated, and have not come back to it. Or if you’re waiting for Meet the Press to seriously examine whether Obama’s nominee for the opening seat on the Supreme Court is in reality a racist, a case which can easily be made based on her own statements as a Federal judge, you had better pack a lunch – and a midnight snack. In short, until and unless Obama somehow crosses his pals in the media, there’s going to have to be a dead body on the White House lawn before the mainstream press is going to do anything resembling investigative journalism where the current administration is concerned, and I’m thinking that even that corpse wouldn’t make it a lock.
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