ABC news hits the bottom of the barrel with tonight's lead-off story as Jake Tapper hands the McCain campaign a big, fat megaphone to trumpet slander.
Let the Wild Charges Begin: McCain Campaign Insinuates Joe the Plumber's Private Records Were Illegally Breached as "Political Retribution" by the Obama Campaign, Compares it to Watergate
Much is made of media bias, both on the left and on the right. As study after study has shown, the conservative notion of the liberal media is persistent, but demonstrably false. On the left, of course, we can cite Ron Fournier and AP's poor decision to hire him, Fox, and most of talk radio.
I'd argue though that media bias is largely not a product of out-and-out bias nearly so much as the pernicious placement of stories.
Right now, Saturday night 9:40 p.m, ABC News on their home page is featuring the following:
http://blogs.abcnews.com/...
Putting aside that this is their lead story, but actually comes from a blog, this is the clothing in which media bias comes far more often today. The pernicious accusation, the anonymous quote.
Earlier this summer, all the McCain campaign had to do was release a new savage ad against Senator Obama and Mark Halperin would dutifully place it at the top of his web blog "The Page", fed off Time Magazine. "Reporting"...well, in the loosest of ways.
Tonight, its Jake Tapper...and these are not unfamiliar waters for Jake.
The article then goes on to say:
Former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani and former Ohio Attorney General Betty Montgomery participated in a conference call set up by the McCain campaign to chat about this. (You can listen to the call HERE.)
Montgomery called for the inspector general in Ohio to immediately launch an investigation. "There are still very many questions to be answered," Montgomery said.
"In light of all of the allegations that are going on all over the country of voter fraud," Giuliani said, "to have this revelation also it seems to me to be something that is of really great concern to all of us."
"All Joe the Plumber did is ask a question," Giuliani said, giggling. "That should not open American citizens to having -- if this happened -- their private records probed because of some sort of political retribution. And if this is the way an Obama administration is going to conduct itself, the American people should know this before the fact."
When a reporter asked if there was any evidence that these records were breached by anyone with a political agenda, Giuliani said, "If this were someone on the Republican side you would not be asking the question." He said the inspector general needed to get to the bottom of why the information was sought.
When a reporter told Giuliani he was making some serious insinuations that the Obama campaign was involved in this, the former Mayor responded, "I don’t know if this came from the Obama campaign or not, but I think we have a right to find out. It is curious…"
What was missing? Well, any evidence of any sort for one.
Some thoughts on this:
- Its beyond outrageous that ABC and Tapper would feature this as their lead story on the main page TWO days after the Communications Director for the McCain campaign was caught pushing what we now know was a false/ fraudulent race-baiting hoax.
ABC, Jake: were you asleep the past two days?
- When the story says that a reporter asked if there was any evidence of a political link and then followed up to point out that 9u11iani was making some very serious insinuations, that Jake that right there, was your cue...That's what reporters are supposed to do
Here's what they're not supposed to do: use their very widely trafficked websites to push out unverified and potentially slanderous rumors based on partisan hopes rather than actual evidence.
Let ABC know: this crosses the line
ABC News Contact Page
**UPDATED**
A number of those commenting suggest this misreads Tapper and that he is, in fact, making fun of the charges.
Fair enough, but a few things to keep in mind:
- Jake Tapper has done this sort of thing before, a lot. Think back to the primaries and Austen Goolsbee.
- The larger point: this story is NOT hidden in Tapper's blog. It is the top story on the homepage, carrying the following headline: Plumbergate? GOP asks if Dems breached Joe's Tax Records
Fine if you don't think Tapper is driving a meme. Splashing this at the top of the site as the lead story? That, my friends, is driving a meme.
And ABC has done this a lot...and lest you forget, they leave those stories up there a LONG time.