audio opensource_audio Talk Nation Radio for 3/13/2008 10:00 AM John McCain's Free Ride with the US Media Paul Waldman of Media Matters on his new book, 'Free Ride, John McCain and the Media' "There is a good deal of rewriting of history that's going on. McCain would have people believe that he was critical of the Bush strategy from the beginning. That he has been a great critic of the war and that he called for Donald Rumsfeld's resignation. None of that is true. He didn't call for Donald Rumsfeld's resignation. He made some criticisms of him but he never called for his resignation as he has said he did and if you go back to what he said before the war he said just as the Bush administration did that it was going to be easy, that we would be greeted as liberators, that this was essentially going to be no problem. Those were the things that he is on record as saying. He I think would like people to believe now that that's not true and that he knew how tough it was going to be and that he was an early critic. But if reporters are going to allow him to say that then they have an obligation to go back and look at what he actually said at the time and what he said at the time was pretty much exactly what the Bush administration was saying." "Simply put. There is no politician who has gotten better treatment from the American media in recent memory than John McCain." Paul Waldman, Media Matters Produced by Dori Smith, WHUS Radio, FM 91.7, at the University of Connecticut in Storrs, CT TRT: 29:34 Paul Waldman joins us for the half hour to discuss John McCain and the US Press, the Iraq War, Vietnam history, and the 'maverick' label. He is a senior fellow with Media Matters for America, http://www.mediamatters.org, a not-for-profit, progressive research and information center that monitors conservative misinformation and tries to set the record straight. He is co-author with Media Matters' Founder David Brock of the book, 'Free Ride, John McCain and the Media', out from Anchor books a division of Knopf Books, Random House. The US Press has rolled out the red carpet for John McCain. Facts fall by the wayside as they treat McCain with deference and accept his pandering to the hard right, even the racist right, people like John Hagee. McCain's ability to work the media has meant that reporters ignore the story whenever the so-called 'straight talk express' goes flying off the road. We look at statements by McCain in 2008 that don't jive with his previous remarks during other campaigns and we discuss the most glaring examples from the book, Free Ride, which is more of an overview of the way the media has tolerated even John McCain's most glaring examples of misspeak, spin, and the covering up of such things as close ties to lobbyists. The "architect" of Bush's political strategies, Karl Rove, has been making appearances on FOX News' America's Election HQ and Hannity & Colmes discussing the presidential race as if he were just another pundit. The hosts failed to explain that he has been "informally advising" Sen. John McCain's campaign. Rove has reportedly also confirmed donating to McCain's campaign. The networks have also engaged in he said she said coverage of the campaigns of Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama. Race has come up, yet CNN's anchor Wolf Blitzer seems unconcerned about the problem of his racist remarks by his commentator on The Situation Room, Bill Bennett who remarked that you could abort all black babies to reduce crime. We revisit the clip saved by Media Matters. Despite his resignation in shame from his job as White House Chief of Staff, dirty trickster Karl Rove gets a job with FOX. Both 'pundits' came out early and telegraphed to conservative and right wing viewers of FOX and CNN that they should accept McCain as the nominee and that a McCain ticket with Mitt Romney as Vice President would be a good idea. Now it seems Romney could well be the VP. In addition to serving as a Fox News contributor, Rove was named a contributor to Newsweek in November, "offering occasional opinion pieces to the pages of the magazine and to Newsweek.com." Rove's most recent column appeared in the February 11 issue of Newsweek. Karl Rove, the president's top political hand since his Texas days, recently gave money to McCain and soon after had a private conversation with the senator. A top McCain adviser said both Mehlman and Rove are now informally advising the campaign. Rove refused to detail his conversation with McCain. http://www.whus.org FM 91.7 for the Pacifica Affiliate at the University of Connecticut in Storrs, CT, UCONN's Radio for the People John McCain; cosy with US press; Media Matters; Paul Waldman; co author with Media Matters Founder David Brock of the book; 'Free Ride; John McCain and the Media'; real story of John McCain and efforts for Airbus; Boeing; Paxton Communications; Vicki Iseman; plus what McCain really said about Iraq; what McCain said about Vietnamese people; racist comments; Bill Bennett; you could abort every black baby to reduce crime; CNN; Fox; conservatives get away with racist remarks Dori Smith, WHUS, Pacifica Network http://creativecommons.org/licenses/publicdomain/ PaulWaldmanOfMediaMattersOnHisNewBookFreeRideJohnMccainAndThe doritalknation@sbcglobal.net 2008-03-13 15:34:45 2008-03-13 17:23:44