Romney Bullying III: The Silliness of the Right

So, we covered the reasons you should ignore the hullabaloo over the Romney bullying story.

And I told you to avoid cable news about the issue.

Now, let’s ignore the right-wing websites.

One of them is RedState.com.  I refer to them as RedMeat.com.  They’re highly partisan and loaded with half-truths and, in my opinion, laughable most of the time.

Take this morning’s piece.

Here’s some half-truth:

From this it is pretty clear that the Lauber incident did not unfold in the way the Washington Post describes, if, indeed, it happened at all.  Why this and why now? … As we’ve mentioned before this is all part of a process to brand Romney as a vicious, thoughtless, out-of-touch rich guy.

Notice the language.  “It is pretty clear” the incident didn’t happen the way the Post described it. No, it’s not pretty clear.  There is some evidence it might not have happened that way.

We don’t know; we weren’t there.  We have to use the same reasoning for both sides of the story.  The alleged victim has died.  His death is convenient for both sides.

As far as trying to brand Romney as an out of touch rich guy: two things. 

• First, it’s politics.  John Kerrey, a decorated war hero, was characterized as a military weakling. 
• Second, Romney doesn’t need anyone to characterize how out of touch he seems.  He does a good job on his own.

Still,according to RedState, it is wrong to be blatantly political … err … by the other side.

It is really Obama’s only hope as he can’t possibly win if he runs on his objective accomplishments.

And now the conspiracy.

This story has obviously been in the works for a while but the news value of it is questionable. It is the basic oppo dump material that the Washington Post obediently churns out on Republicans. As Major Garrett reports in National Journal, the whole Biden-evolving postion idea was a scam to allow Obama to support gay marriage:

I don’t doubt that the Obama campaign has the ear of someone inside the Washington Post.  And did RedState.com explore the overwhelming arguments against the “birthers” as much as they covered the Romney bullying?  No.  And do many people really think Obama’s stand on same-sex marriage will win him the election?  In fact, he may have jeopardized his chances.  Two things:

• This is what campaigns do.  They try to influence reporters.  I am sure no one in the Romney campaign has even called the Washington Times or Fox News Channel.
• The media is biased.  Get over it.

The Informed Not Inflamed Take:

Stop feeding the animals, they stop coming around.  The animals are the politicians and the whacko media.  Subscribing to this half-truth content or even spouting it to friends or in emails, only causes more to be produced.

In a post on Creating Your New Basket, I recommended Talking Points Memo and National Review Online as two political websites to subscribe to.  Do they have some extremist ideas and stories?  Sure, but to me, they’re less offensive, more nuanced, and better sourced.

Again, I am not telling you what to read and what not to read.  I am only trying to weed out the wasted time in your news gathering.

 

Tagged as: 2012 presidential Republican candidates, A Measure of Media Bias, bias in media examples, conservative media bias examples, contact Fox News headquarters, corporate control of elections, examples of media bias, MSNBC Al Sharpton, Romney Bullying