Bias in the Media: Klein’s Soapbox

By Margaret Curtis, PhD

Joe Klein’s “Note to Obama: Get Down off the Mountaintop” assumes that Obama has been on top of anything. The same column in Time Magazine attacks Romney for being an “enigma” while claiming that Obama only appears to be an enigma “became we know where he stands on the issues.” The respectful reader must ask: Oh, Joe, who is the “we” in that claim?

Does that “we” include the following:

1.   The house committee currently investigating the administration’s handling of the Benghazi debacle, resulting in the deaths of four diplomatic personnel, including Christopher Stevens?

2.   Previous investigators of the Fast and Furious scandal?

3.   Previous investigators of the Solyndra scandal?

4.   African-American church leaders demanding clarity on Christian values?

5.   Catholic church leaders protesting Obamacare insurance policies?

Klein’s entire column functions as propaganda, beginning with the royal “we” of absolute monarchs, while insisting there must be some respectable reason for Obama’s apparent reliance on a teleprompter. 

Attacks on the obviously innocent president come down to racism for Klein, of course. Note the following lines in which Klein precludes other possibilities, such as arrogance or ignorance:

1.   “Various conservative commentators offered that Obama was finally disrobed, a mediocrity dependent on a teleprompter. There was a distinct racial tinge to this, I believe.”

2.   “Former New Hampshire governor John Sununu, co-chair of the Romney campaign, called the President lazy, which has more than a little ethnic history attached to it.”

Klein also betrays here his own intense dislike of his chosen subject: politicians. Take care, this self-proclaimed expert warns his readers, for “the art of politics is a honey-and-baloney sandwich.”  If that proclamation were true, of course, Klein would not fault Romney for standing, or so Klein says, “on so many sides of so many issues.”

Note to Joe Klein: Get Down off your Soapbox, and cover the news. Your subjects are transparent, and so are you.

For the complete demonstration of this set piece of propaganda, see http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,2126665,00.html#ixzz2903h68Wc