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Sunday, January 23, 2005Bear any burden?Dean Esmay is discussing "White House backpedaling" (Instapundit's paraphrase) on the Inaugural Address. But when one visits the WaPo story that's the core of the post, one gets the distinct impression that the Post found the folks it knew would be most reticent to boost this wholeheartedly and ask some deliberately obtuse questions. Officials responded that 1) the speech didn't say anything dramatically new, 2) it wasn't a "right turn," but 3) it did say some old things more clearly or directly. Dean Esmay asks, Did Lincoln's, JFK's, FDR's, Ronald Reagan's, Dwight Eisenhowers, Bill Clinton's advisors have to do this? When they have to say "It is not this...It is not that...It is not so and so" it means a failure of a basic goal: clear communication of a message.Bull. It means we've got a media that is fundamentally biased against this President and will do anything it can anytime it can to undermine the best of what he stands for. When President Kennedy was sworn in, did the Washington Post run a piece two days later entitled, "Bear Any Burden?: Bobby Kennedy concedes invasion of East Germany not imminent"? When Lincoln said, "With charity for all and malice toward none," did the newspaper headlines say, "Will all Rebs get clemency? Advisers say no"? (Actually, maybe some did.) Bottom line, this is not the reporting of news, but the manufacture of news. When Esmay asks if JFK, FDR, etc. had to do this, the answer is, of course not. No one would have had the chutzpah to go to a Kennedy adviser and say, "'Bear any burden' is nice, but between you and me, but if Moscow acts directly, will we really respond?" But today, a media hell-bent on taking down the president a peg any time he gains any ground cannot even let an inaugural address soar without trying to pull it back down. This says less about Bush than what has become of the MSM. Which is why the MSM is losing share and Bush got reelected despite all their efforts. Coming next week: Bush makes a bold statement, advisers rebuff opportunities to talk to reporters about the more nuanced implications of the president's remarks and the same WaPo reporter does a story wondering why the Bush administration is so inaccessible to the press. P.S. If you'd asked Pierre Salinger in 1960 if "bear any burden" included challenging Soviet troops with American ones in Prague, he'd have said "Hell no." And it would never have been reported. 
posted by gbarto at 11:32 AM |
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